And thus the French Foreign Legion Fought Here
by Jackie Robinson
Summary: What if the gate had opened in the South of France and instead of a medieval army filled with mythical creatures exiting it Titans did. Now the French people & their allies look to possibly begin the process of performing attempting to strike back against an unusual enemy in a foreign world finding a blurred line between "friend" and "foe" Warning: Out of order character deaths.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own** **Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri** **while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. Please enjoy reading this story.**

 **And Thank you**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

 _'Hi'= Flashback thinking_

 _Hi=Intro_

 ** _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_**

Prologue

 _Private Military Achieves, Dated June 23rd 2018_

 **10:00 hrs.-Mougins, Provence:** French farmer Louis Adrien Bellerose reports the sight of a Romanesque gate in the middle of a nearby farmer's field, report recorded &initially ignored.

 **10:13 hrs.-Mougins, Provence:** French farmer Henry Allard reports the sight of a similar Romanesque gate in the middle of his field, report recorded but still ignored.

 **10:27 hrs.-Mougins, Provence:** Two additional farmers Marie Babin & Martin Couture report a similar structure in a neighbor's field, reports recorded and in response French constables Martin Deforest & Antoine Fosse are sent to investigate the reports.

 **10:45 hrs-Provence:** Local TV & radio stations begin to spread the word or a mysterious gate having appeared in the middle of a local farmer's field. However due to the outrageous nature of the claims & the ensuing lack of evidence most persons within the region ignore, claiming it to be the result of either overly active imaginations or a slow news day.

 **10:50 hrs.-Mougins, Provence:** Report from Martin Deforest & Antoine Fosse confirms the statements of the four previously mentioned farmers while also adding an additional 7 reports to the original 4, 2 of which are able to describe the moments in which the gate first appeared. Recommend that the Police Chief on Duty, Madame Antoinette Duvalier, pass the report to the National Gendarmerie headquarters in Paris.

 **11:45 hrs.-Paris:** General Richard Lizurey receives the telephone from Madame Duvalier and declares the organization of all available fGendarmerie units in the Provence region to be mobilized and sent to the source of reports in anticipation of anything exiting the gate.

 **13:00 hrs.-Mougins, Provence:** The small field, and subsequent surrounding area, had been put into glorified lockdown and all of the local populace evacuated in case of a rapid deterioration of the situation while also being in preparation to receive support from military units.

 **13:09 hrs.-** First news reports of the gate's manifestation begin to appear on French national news networks and while the news it taken seriously in France, internationally it fails to make any major headlines and as such is mostly ignores

 **14:00 hrs.- Mougins, Provence:** First hostiles exit from the gate, large looming giant like figures that refuse to respond to any commands from Gendarmerie officers and begin acting aggressively towards any humans they see.

 **14:03 hrs.- Mougins, Provence:** Gendarmerie Officer Albert Rousseau becomes the first Frenchman to die at the hands of one of these beings, is eaten alive, followed shortly afterwards by C.

 **14:04 hrs.-Mougins, Provence:** Command is given to indiscriminately open fire upon any and all of the giant like figures until they have all been neutralized, early efforts of neutralizing the hostiles by traditional means prove to be ineffective. This lack of effectiveness forces Gendarmerie officers to give small amounts of ground within the small perimeter.

 **14:10 hrs.-** News of fatalities in recent attacks in Provence cause the previously uninteresting news story to become globally recognized with online & traditional news outlets adding fuel to the fire by depicting the image of unstoppable, Godzilla like creatures appearing almost out of nowhere in the fields of rural France. In an attempt to prevent the spread of further fear driven chaos the French government orders the French regional transportation councils & SNCF(Société nationale des chemins de fer français/ French National Railway Company) to suspend rail services to and within Provence.

 **14:29 hrs.-Mougins, Provence:** First giant is slain after receiving many shots to its nape, reports of weakness quickly spread throughout the local troops.

 **14:32 hrs.-** Footage of the first take down goes viral.

 **14:45 hrs.-Mougins, Provence:** Two additional hostiles are taken down by Gendarmerie officers and ground previously lost is slowly reclaimed with the occaisional encountering of resistance

 **16:00 hrs.-Mougins, Provence:** Combined units of the French National Guard and local French Army arrive in Mougins and, with the help of reports from Gendarmerie officers, neutralize the remaining hostiles and secure the initial area around the small gate. With the arrival and deployment of tanks the small field is entirely secured and soldiers begin the process of setting up command posts in case of a seconds wave of hostile activity.

 **16:50 hrs.-Mougins, Provence:** After the careful dissection of the hostiles the first civilian casualties are recorded, a total of 18 (9 male, 3 child, and 6 female) moved to local coroner's office by National Guard units for further identification.

 **17:00 hrs.- Mougins, Provence:** Mougins and the surrounding area are officially declared secure, however rail services in the region are still suspended until further notice.

 **17:40 hrs.-Mougins, Provence:** First flight of unmanned French drones enter into the gate to begin forming reconnaissance on the land scape on the other side. While images are initially kept secret from the public, they quickly dismantle the idea of a single, unified, or even modern enemy being on the other side causing President Emmanuel Macron, Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly, and Chief of Defense Staff General Francoise Lecointre to begin considering the idea of forming a humanitarian rather than punitive military expedition.

 **18:00 hrs.- Mougins, Province:** Of the 18 bodies found in the giant's stomachs only 8(5 male, 1 child, 3 female) are identified David Louche(58 yrs.), Anton Gage(55yrs.), Emile Joubert(50yrs.), Abel Lachapelle(45yrs.), Marie Lane(45yrs.), Adele Lambert,(32 yrs.) Alexia Leon(25 yrs.), Gilles Merle(9 yrs.). Bringing the total amount of fatalitiesup to 48, 8 identified civilian, 10 unidentified civilian, and 30 identified law enforcement/military.

 **18:15 hrs.-** News of identified bodies released by the French government to the public.

 **21:00 hrs.-** Final French drone returns back to its base outside of the gate allowing for President Macron to return to the Presidential Palace and prepare to address a shocked nation.

* * *

 _Excerpt_ _President Emmanuel Macron's Speech to the French People on June 25th 2018, roughly 24 hours after the attacks_

My fellow French citizens I come before you today with unfortunate news. Yesterday, June 24th 2018, is a day that will eternally exist in infamy in our nation's history as we, the French people, were suddenly and most maliciously attacked by a group of unknown hostiles who originate from a gate which currently resides in the south of France. This incident has left any and all persons involved, be they French or foreign, shaken & most definitely unnerved as it currently bares no traceable connection to any of the well known terrorist organizations on any international watch lists. For any persons who have been unfortunate to lose any friends or family members in these most recent attacks I must tell you now that my sympathies and condolences go out to you for the sadness of losing a loved one in such a manner should not be forced upon any human being. However, I would also like to allow a moment to be set aside in order to properly honor the services and sacrifices of the men & women who valiantly and without any form of hesitation came to the aid of their fellow countrymen and foreign visitors alike. My special condolences go out to the family of Officers Albert Rousseau & Officer Albert Rousseau who were forced to make the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.

I wish to also allow for the people of this nation to be consoled with the knowledge that I intend to go to the United Nations to propose the following policy.

[ _..._ ]

Finally I wish to ask for a moment of silence in remembrance of the lives lost on such a sunny summer day, while also hoping that you all may hope for much brighter news to be sent our direction. Thank you.

* * *

 _News Excerpt from CNN July 3rd 2018, roughly 10 days after the original attacks._

President Trump issued a statement this morning in regards to the recent speech & proposal made by French President Emmanuel Macron in the United Nations Assembly saying...

"We will not agree to commit any American soldiers to go running through any imaginary gate until we have an idea of what's on the other side"

In addition to this White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders coo berated this stance adding that it would...

"Violate the America first police put forth by the Trump administration" while also adding "It may require the withdraw of U.S troops from more important theaters to supplement a ghost front in a land far away amongst a people we know little about".

In contrast to this Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared that his government would be willing to send a select few military and possibly air force units to aid in the supplementing of the current operation. This makes Canada the fourth nation, and the first non-European country, to agree to join the coalition putting alongside of England, Germany, and Belgium, this has also caused the question of whether or not other Non-European nations may be compelled to join.

President Putin also elected to comment on the recent chain of events, citing the question of possibly joining the coalition to...

"Most definitely be on the agenda as an issue to be discussed in his planned meeting with President Macron this upcoming week"

Some members of the American & European press find this statement to be not entirely truthful, citing that the Russian president may elect to use this recent chain of events as possible leverage to get previously agreed upon sanctions to be lifted in exchange for military support. But also this rise of Russian interest has caused the waiting eye of the world to turn towards the Asian theatre of politics to see what may occur there, this waiting game has been spurred on by statements of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, quoted as being heard saying that...

"The Japanese government has for many recent years had a tight relationship with France and as such would not be entirely opposed to allowing a small number of Japanese military units to aid in a limited number of military activities in the new theatre as long as they did not violate any pre-existing Japanese laws on military involvement".

With this recent statement many eyes have turned to the Chinese and while no news has come from Beijing and no statements have been made about the whole affair many political theorists do not believe that the General Secretary of the Communist Party & Chinese President Xi Jinping will remain quiet much longer. However, the question of the intentions of the operation and the strategies that will be employed cause all eyes to come back to President Macron and the policies laid out in his speech to the United Nations Assembly...

"From the limited amount of surveillance footage & photos we have gathered the likeliness of this being a well coordinated attack by a central mastermind has been deemed incredibly unlikely. The people who reside on the other side of the gate in question have been found to be living in dwelling that are directly out of the Medieval era and as such the goal for this expedition has shifted from being one of a punitive nature to one of humanitarian intentions. Instead of aiming to militarily neutralize the people in question we intend to possibly pursue a police of humanitarian instruction under military protection to aid in the furthering of a people"...

President Macron went onto explain his intentions to use combined detachments of the French Foreign Legion and Air Forces before going onto to make the following analogy.

"As the saying goes 'if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, if you teach a man to fish you feed him for life' we could pursue a policy of neutralizing any hostile entities we come into contact with and entirely ignore the people who these entities have victimized. But that would only temporarily solve the problem, for even though it will be a swift resolution when these people inevitably fall on hard times and are unable to help themselves they will look to us to aid them and as such we will be forced to expend more money aiding their government rebuild while possibly being forced to house any refugees that enter into our country as a result. However, in aiding them to build a better economic & political system we will be able to eventually completely extract ourselves from the situation and leave a stable government behind that we will not need to prop up, saving us from being forced to spend a good deal of our nations' budgets on such an unsuccessful venture"

Despite the good intentions of this policy some people worry whether or not it will work, citing the failures of such policies in numerous African countries, The Republic of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan while also wondering who will be required to foot the bill of such operations.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own** **Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri** **while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. Please enjoy reading this story.**

 **And Thank you**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

 _'Hi'= Flashback thinking_

 _Hi=Intro_

 ** _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_**

Chapter 1 

**Mougins, Provence, France August 28th 2018, 10:00 hrs. Western European Time**

The bright French summer sun shone down upon the open, rolling Provence fields filled with lavender plants in the late stages of full bloom and dotted with the occasional barn for the more rugged of rural farm animals. Truth be told the whole valley looked incredibly picturesque & serene with an innocence that made one reminisce to that which could be found in a Monet painting, it was almost as if nothing had happened. As if this small valley hadn't been the backdrop of one of the most unprecedented attacks on the Southern France by a foreign power in decades, and as though it was not the starting point of the next chapter in such a story. Almost, in that case it was good thing that one would not have to go too far in order to remove one's self from this picturesque illusion and meet the gritty reality of what was about to transpire. The event in question that was about to transpire was the first major stages of Operation Troy, the multi-national military plan to properly respond to the terrorist attack on the French people.

The greatest testimony to this was the coalition military column that was currently parked directly in front of the gate which had served as the doorway for several giants to enter into this world. In the months ensuing the initial attack & the French government's appeal to the international community for support the ensuing wave of coalition allies who had joined Operation Troy had been at least noteworthy a fact which could be proven when surveying the amount of flags that were on display from this column. Going down the column from back to front one would see the Russian Byelyye, Japanese Nisshōki, Canadian Maple Leaf, Belgian National flag, German Bundesflagge, Union Jack, and finally at the front the French Tri-Colour with each nation's place correctly summarizing their direct military contributions to the operation. Sitting on top of one of the transportation vehicles and gazing in the beautiful sight was none other than 23 year old Captain Cesar Khansari. Turning his attention away from the column Simon found himself catching sight of a large group of French civilians, some of whom looked to be journalists, who were being kept at a distance from the column. When he had elected to join the French Air Force detachment that had been assigned to help in the Foreign Legion's mission Cesar had imagined himself being able to go to many places, primarily Africa, however what he hadn't expected was to be placed on a mission set to "invade" a world filled with giants.

Giants, those mystical creature from Medieval European folklore who were incredibly stupid but were often bailed out by their size, the creatures that were soup he staple of the fantasy genre that even C.S Lewis had bothered to include them in his children's stories. The only thing that was more surprising than that was that there were people in existence who truly lived entirely in the Middle Ages without any semi-modern buildings to be found. Despite this however, Cesar wasn't as surprised at the knowledge of a people lacking basic necessities such as clean running water, electricity, and modern medicine after all his Iranian born father had taken care to mention how lucky the family was to be French citizens almost everyday Cesar was a child. With this in mind the premission briefing and it's emphasized points came back to him.

 _"Our mission will be to help these people defeat these Giants while also looking to see if it's possible to advance them technologically" his commanding officer had begun._

 _"These people live in dwellings similar to that of those in Medieval times which their greatest threat to you is not from what they do know but rather what they don't; in terms of hygiene, knowledge of diseases, and proper medical techniques they situation looks mediocre at best" before adding._

 _"For all you veterans, if you thought Mali or Burkina Faso was bad, this will be even worse" and when asked to give a rough idea of what to be expected via country comparison he'd simply replied._

 _"If things get out of control I think we maybe looking at a situation similar to that of Somalia" after that there had been few questions to give them a good frame of mind, but instead chose to focus on learning the mission specifics._

As the memory slowly faded back into Cesar's subconscious he found his eyes once again looking down the long column before once again drifting to the civilian crowd that stood beside it. Whether or not anyone was willing to admit it everyone in the column knew one undeniable fact, that the eyes of the eyes of the world were now upon them, as this was possibly one of the strongest European based responses to terrorism and one of the first that had been spearheaded by the French government. It was with this in mind that Cesar felt something poke him in the side and he looked down to see his squadron mate, and second in command of his Escadrille, Joseph Taube standing directly below him.

"It's nearly time" Joseph said causing Cesar to simply nod in response and jump down from his position on the vehicle to stand by Joseph before the two began to make their way over towards their pre-assigned position. Over the course of the previous few weeks various observation missions had been carried out by drones of the French Air Force to determine what tactics would be best for establishing a base in the area surrounding the gate itself and while they had managed to accomplish it while also making one fact clear, that it was incredibly difficult for the pilots to fly the drones through the gate meaning that it was not a wise decision to order Air Force pilots to do the same things with actual combat aircraft. With that the Coalition forces had elected to instead drive the aircraft which had been selected for this operation & the pilots which would fly them, through the gate and deploy them on the other side on a makeshift airfield. As Cesar's thought began to turn towards the thought of the air craft which he'd been forced to learn to fly for the mission, employed because they were deemed as being "easier" to teach the natives, a shiver subconsciously went down his spine. Luckily he didn't have to continue that train of thought as the loud siren that signaled the operation was about to begin went off causing Joseph & him to change their simple walking pace to one of a hard jog allowing them to finally reach the small VTT armored personnel carrier and began to climb in only for the distinct sound of one of the speakers being turned on to be heard before a familiar voice followed.

"Bonjour my friends, my name is Emmanuel Macron and I have the honor of being the leader of the nation of France and as such I would like to thank all those who are members of the armed forces gathered here today to begin taking the first step towards seeking justice for the unprovoked attack on the French people. It's with great regret that I'm forced to inform your over this communication system that I will not be able to be arriving to see all of you off on your great expedition to aid in the betterment of the lives of others. However, despite my inability to attend I do hope that you will not mind being called to perform a moment of silence in memory of the heroic police officers & civilians who lost their lives on this very field almost two months ago"

There was no question as to whether or not such a thing was possible and in immediate response the entirety of the column went silent as word of the president's request got round. Never in his life had Cesar thought that such a large group of people could get so quiet so fast and had his eyes not been open chances were that he might've thought that the entirety of the column had disappeared leaving him alone on the field, for even the engines had been turn off. After a few seconds a lone voice broke the silence and began to sing an anthem that properly represented the current mindset of the nation which had written it so many years ago, the Marseillaise.

"Allons enfants de la Patries,  
Le jours de gloire est arrive!"

Before the single voice had even finished the first verse many other voices began to join in along side it, making the lone cry of patriotism begin to turn into a noteworthy movement.

"Contre nous de la tyrannie  
L'étendard sanglant est levé ! (bis)  
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes,  
Mugir ces féroces soldats ?"

By now the small group of voices had begun a force as the anthem was no longer solely being sung by the members of the French units, the song in its various translations had begun being belted out by all of those who stood by be it in Russian, English, Japanese, German, or the native French it was written in.

"Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras  
Égorger nos fils, nos compagnes !

"Aux armes, citoyens !  
Formez vos bataillons !  
Marchons ! Marchons !  
Qu'un sang impur  
Abreuve nos sillons !"

By the final cry it was no longer a song, but a multi-national statement meant not only meant for the various Coalition forces to console their French allies, not simply a was for the French units to console their fellow countrymen. It became a statement, a statement of a country which had been bent by a sudden incursion onto its home soil of hostile forces from an enemy they did not know, but were about to bring to justice while also liberating all of those under its thumb. And it was with that the engines of the transports started up Cesar & Joseph climbed into their vehicle and the column began its slow journey to the other side of the ominous gate which lay on the outskirts of a small town in the South of France.

 **Hey guys,**

 **I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and I would like to warn you ahead of time that as of right now I'll be forced to adapt to a newer busier schedule so updates will be a little more sparse than this one, but don't worry I won't make you guys wait months for glorified peanuts. Regardless I hope that you guys remain just as actively involved in giving me feedback because I intend to start asking you a few questions and would really enjoy your input on it.**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Jackie Robinson**


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own** **Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri** **while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. Please enjoy reading this story.**

 **And Thank you**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

 _'Hi'= Flashback thinking_

 _Hi=Intro_

 ** _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_**

Chapter 2

 **Situation** **Room, French Ministry of Defense, Paris, France** **August 28th 2018, 11:00 hrs. Western European Time**

To say that the mood within the main room for French military operations was tense would be a complete and utter understatement with the source of this tension being an immense number of factors with one of the biggest reasons was the background which surrounded this military operation. Few military operations had been carried out by the French government with such speed; in a little more than two months since the initial terrorist attack on French soil the government had managed to call for, put together, and transport a European military coalition the likes of which hadn't been seen since the first few years following the end of Cold War. This was made even worse by the fact that in the time that they'd been organizing the counter-attack they hadn't been able to find out if it was indeed possible for vehicles larger than the drones they'd used to scout the initial area could be sent through the gate at all, for fear of giving away the fact that a counter-assault was immanent. With this in mind General Francois Lecointre let out a rather long sigh as he waited for the first reports of the troops activities on the other side of the gate to begin to roll in.

In all honesty Lecointre had partially been against launching such a hasty counter-assault and as he patiently waited for the confirmation of the troops successful crossing to the other side or failure to do so he nervously held his breath. In the few months of observation that had been allowed the air force units who'd been tasked with performing reconnaissance on this new front they were about to invade had been able to make many discovers, only a few of which had been allowed to make their way into the public conscious. The first was of course to total lack of infrastructure that had been observed, as President Macron had been allowed to inform the UN Assembly in New York of how backwards these people seemed however he had not been able to speak of the overall scale of how little infrastructure their was mainly because it had been deemed unnecessary by military censors. To say that the people in this recently discovered world "lacked" infrastructure was to completely under phrase how poor the situation was. The foreign settlement was cited as being comprised of almost entirely Medieval or Dark Age style thatched houses with the quality gradually rising the father in recon drones went into the settlement. There looked to be few factories, none of which could be considered modern, as far as the recon teams which were attached to the drones could tell there were no hospitals, no water purification areas or treatment plants, no sewage systems, and most of the populous looked to be living a life that only reenactors of the Medieval & Dark Age periods would dare explore. Outside of the settlement itself there were no roads with descent roads, the word descent being used extremely loosely in this specific scenario, only appearing in the center most part of the settlement and the other roads being mostly comprised of what looked to be mud with possibly some sort of water absorbing material spread over it to make it less of a quagmire in the colder months.

The whole situation made the President's claim of a "humanitarian situation" look like a severe understatement in reality it looked like a situation tailor made for a humanitarian disaster similar to that of Somalia and other countries in the horn of Africa if the Coalition was careless. However, what made the already dire situation worse was easily seen from the air by all of the recon drones on all of the recon runs to the settlement and that factor was the giants. Hemmed around the walls of the settlement, and even in the farther reaches of the initial outer districts, they were the obvious factor for the walls, which looked to possibly be at least 30 meters in height, to be erected in the first place. They made all hopes of an approach by an armored convoy nearly impossible, which meant that the only way that contact could hope to be made with the people inside the settlement was through the transportation of troops & delegates via air transport, which might put the initial groups in danger if the populous within the settlement turned out to be hostile. With so many uncontrollable factors and such grave consequences if any errors were made it was no wonder that General Lecointre and all the other military personnel in the room were collectively holding their breath as they waited for the first reports of activity to come in. However, Lecointre wasn't given the luxury of pondering the predicament too much longer as within seconds the sound of the room's door opening could be heard.

"General Leointre" a winded voice cried out causing the general in question to look up from his seat to see the suited men who'd made the declaration currently doubled over and partially out of breath.

"What is it?" the general replied causing the man to straighten up again and take a large gulp of air before continuing with the message he'd been tasked with bringing.

"The leading units of the expeditionary force have managed to make it through the portal itself and are currently beginning to fortify the position" the aid responded before handing the current collected report to one of the lower staff members in the room who promptly took it over to the general so that he could properly read it. The report was scant at best, clearly having been composed quickly causing it to have little of the formalities traditionally found in the modern French military however its scantiness also had another problematic factor within it. That being that the situation was still unfolding, allowing for it to change on a dime in any conceivable direction.

"Is this all?" Lecointre asked causing the man who'd had the misfortune of delivering the message, who had by now regained a proper pattern of breathing, to once again have all the attention in the room fall upon him.

"Yes sir, that's all the information General Poitier has sent so far" the man replied causing Lecointre to set the report down.

"Well keep me, and all the military staff here, well informed of the unfolding situation so that we can give General Poitier any supplied he needs as quickly as possible" Lecointre declared, causing the man to nod before turning to leave the room.

* * *

 **Unknown Position,** **August 28th 2018, 11:00 hrs. Western European Time**

The distinct jingling sound of equipment count be heard as throughout the entirety of the small encampment as soldiers scrambled around the camp using small vehicles or even their bare hands to transport the required ammunition, building materials, and whatever other things that had been deemed critical to be included in the front of the column to their required spot. To the uninformed observer this constant movement might be assumed to be the sign of confusion, possibly even chaos as the expected sound of officers barking out orders could not be heard anywhere among the seemingly endless riff-raff. However, this could not be even farther from the truth as the lack of orders was sign as to how well trained each individual Coalition soldier was at analyzing the situation that they'd been placed in and properly respond in an orderly & timely manner. It was in this situation that young Cesar found himself and the other members of his small squadron found themselves near the small tent which had been set up to accommodate the recent influx of gear set aside for the reconnaissance team.

From the moment that the Coalition column had arrived on the other side of the portal a few short hours ago they had begun the process of constructing an immediate perimeter to set aside as a base to which re-supply teams & supplies could disembark from the known side of the gate to be eventually transported to the combat zone. Due to receiving a different set of tasks upon arrival the few air crews who had been sent along with the column had gotten out of the way of the constant shifting and movement of military gear, only aiding when specifically called to do so. Upon being informed that a drone was to immediately be sent from their current spot the to do list issued to them had been to focus more on the reconnaissance aspects of the current situation, which had included watching meticulously at the computer screen which the small camera on the drone was currently transmitting a live feed to.

"Look at the size of those things!" someone declared causing Cesar to change his focus from his thoughts to the screen at hand and peer between the shoulders of two airmen who were standing in front of him. It wasn't the first time that he'd seen them after all he could openly testify to the fact that the French air crews that had been assigned to the mission had indeed been given some photos and known information as to the hostiles they would be facing, however he couldn't help but be slightly surprised that not all the other crews had been afforded the same luxury, but letting the thought leave his mind he returned his focus to the screen in front of him. They looked just like they had in the original photos and footage, the only difference being the fact that the angle made them look slightly less tall and that their intimidation factor had been greatly reduced to the lack of human blood on their lips. In fact at this point they looked quite cartoonish, somewhat akin to the images that many children had in their mind of the way that the more buffoonish giants of Medieval folklore might look should they have actually existed. Their hair, for the majority of them had hair, looked poorly kept causing it to have in common with the mane of a lion than the regular hair that would reside on the top of the head of a human and it also looked as though their motor skills were so poor that their level of impairment looked to be similar to that of a person who'd consumed too much alcohol. However, despite their ridiculous look & obviously impaired motor functions there was one thing that managed to almost reverse these almost laughable handicaps and that was their immense amount of numbers.

As the drone proceeded to perform another one of its flybys the sheer scale of the creature's assault was able to be properly understood by all of the pilots who viewed it. For beings which obviously lacked a language, any sort of strategy, or any proper military training the sheer number of giants which had been brought to bare on the small settlement which they were currently besieging sent shutters down Cesar's spine. If those things could only be stopped by the gigantic walls which lay between them and the unfortunate inhabitants inside of the settlement, how well could he or any of the Coalition forces honestly expect to fair should the same amount of giants elect to perform a similar assault on their small encampment.

'Hopefully, we'll never have to find out' Cesar thought as the drone finished its reconnaissance of the settlement and the pilot began the process of flying the small unmanned machine back to base. Cesar was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of feet walking towards him and casually glanced back to see his superior officer, Commandant Philippe Foche causing him to turn around on what couldn't be called anything more than a dime Cesar instinctually proceeded to salute to the man.

"Sir" Cesar declared, causing the others in the tent besides the drone pilot to do the same and those of inferior rank to the Commandant to before a similar salue.

"At ease, I have news about our upcoming assignment" the Commandant responded, electing to allow all the airmen to perform the order in question before continuing.

"In a few days several pre-selected delegates from the French government & UN will be arriving to begin attempting to negotiate the natives here, we've been given the orders to transport & escort them to the settlement and back on the day in question, until then you can expect things to be quiet outside of the usual duties" the man instructed causing the group to nod in response before he elected to add.

"But don't any of you begin to get lax during this brief break from action, if any of those things get too close for comfort we'll be expected to make sorties in response, and once the negotiations end we'll be up to our necks in the business of aiding in the modernization of the native's fighting forces; dismissed" with that the Commandant turned around and left causing the group to begin the process of mingling once again. The next few days were going to be full of unusual surprises and Cesar hoped that none of them proved to be fatal.

 **Hey Guys,**

 **It's me Jackie, since this story is going to have a section involving the 104th I was wondering how much training you want to see. Feel free to submit your vote to any of the following categories of how much training I should detail before the Battle of Trost, the options are listed down below.**

 **A. None (Make up another unit to train altogether)**

 **B. A Little (1-2 Chapters worth)**

 **C. A Descent amount (3-4 Chapters)**

 **D. A Lot (5-6 Chapters)**

 **The polls open as of this chapter going up and will close upon the publishing of chapter 4 or 5(not including the prologue) depending on the amount of people who elect to get involved, if there are no voted I will simply make the decision on my own. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter and elect to come back for more.**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Jackie Robinson**


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own** **Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri** **while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. Please enjoy reading this story.**

 **And Thank you**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

 _'Hi'= Flashback thinking_

 _Hi=Intro_

 ** _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_**

Chapter 3

 _This is the BBC home service, here is the 9 O'clock news, as of today it has been a total of 3 days since the Coalition forces first penetrated the large gate near the French town of Mougins. As of today there has been no contact with any enemy hostiles on the opposite side of the gate in question, as a result engineer crews has managed to successfully finish creating a makeshift air strip in the center of the newly established Coalition camp. The leader of the Coalition forces, one General Jean Phillippe Allard, has so far maintained the line of expected military action put forth by the French Ministry of Defense in Paris, by declaring the intention to attempt to make contact with a recently notices settlement that lays several hundred kilometers from the main Coalition encampment. Able to give us few details the general simply declared an intention "to make use of a peaceful show of force by using multiple air cavalry units as transports when moving to speak to the natives in question, as a way of showing our strength and hinting that it would be wise for them to look to make us their allies". It's with this in mind that Coalition forces intend to begin negotiations with the locals in this strange world and hopefully begin to create a united front against the unusual monstrosities which stalk their lands. In other news..._

 _-BBC Nightly News August 31 2018_

 **Unknown Position September** **1st 2018, 10:00 hrs. Western European Time**

It was the hard thump of turbulence that shook Private Alexander Simpson from his quiet sleeping position on one of the small seats of the AS365 Dauphin as it slowly made its way towards the intended drop off point in the center of the human settlement. Since the first day that the Coalition column had first penetrated the gate the French & Royal Air Forces has been flying reconnaissance drones across the entirety of the small strip of land which they had landed on and had made several discoveries. The first, and most obvious, was that of the settlement which they were in the midst of making their way towards; the second had been the large forests which resided not too far from the settlement which were followed by later discoveries of a possible coast line not to far east & west of the settlement. The distribution of this information throughout the ranks had allowed a sense of optimism to begin to surface amongst the troops as such a revelation implied two things, that they either a) on a peninsula or b) an island, either of which would greatly lessen the worries of beginning what could become an indefinite military campaign. It was with these recollections that Private Simpson proceeded to casually glance out of the window connected to the side door of the helicopter and cause himself to bear witness to the rest of the flight of helicopters as well as their escorts.

Their "escorts" were something which seemed to be pulled straight out of an old World War II film from the 1960s or 1970s as it consisted of a flight of old World War II era propeller planes, specifically eight Morane-Saulnier M.S.406s. Despite an early language barrier problem Simpson had been able to come into contact with a bilingual French pilot by the name of Joseph Taube who'd been able to give him some insight into the reason for such a bizarre decision on behalf of the higher military echelons. From what little information that he'd been given the whole reason had something to do with the fact that in order to minimalize the amount of soldiers required to fight the higher up decided that they'd wanted to begin training the citizens of the settlement they were approaching and a good way to ensure that they wouldn't pose a serious threat to them in future years was to give them out dated military technology should elect to want air forces. To many of the higher ups the best way to do this was to give them more inferior aircraft and the only way to get the pilots who would teach & command these units was to get the pilots in the current operation to get experience on these planes in order to gather more information on these slightly modified aircraft.

With his view of the air craft still unimpaired Alexander proceeded to raise his hand and move it in a friendly waving gesture, in response to this the pilot in the air craft in question proceeded to moved what looked to be their arm in response. Turning away from the window Alexander proceeded to close his eyes and attempt to relax once again in order to prevent worries as to what awaited them in the approaching settlement. The questions which could be raised were of all sorts. Did the people in the settlement know that they were coming? If they did how would they prepare for their arrival? Would they greet them with open arms or with swords and spears? If so would they make their intentions clear or would they such them in before springing a trap and attempting to kill them all? There, just like that the questions came fast & furious, causing Alexander's previously somewhat peaceful demeanor to be almost entirely lost, but before he could begin to try to reverse the effects of it a voice could be heard over the loud hum of the helicopter's rotors.

"All passengers on board ready yourselves, we'll be at the landing zone in 5 minutes"

Taking as deep breath Alexander tried to calm himself and made sure the safety on his assault rifle was on before checking the magazine to make sure that it was ready before returning it to its place in the rifle. From here he began the process of checking the various pockets of his uniform making sure that everything was there; his med kit, extra rounds, service pistol, and other possible things that he might've brought. Anything to get his mind off the possible danger that he and his squad might be flying into. Anything at all.

* * *

 **Unknown Position September** **1st 2018, 10:00 hrs. Western European Time**

Turning his head away from the helicopter to his right Cesar proceeded to return his focus back to the task at hand; that being flying a restored, reequipped, and fully operational Morane-Saulnier M.S.406. Cesar had seen these planes many a time when he and his father had gone to the French War Museum at L'Hotel des Invalides in Paris as a birthday present on his numerous birth days. He'd always marveled at the sight of the planes as the tiny models that the museum displayed could be seen decorating the display cases dedicated to the French military actions in the Battle of France, the North African, and Mediterranean campaigns in World War II before they were entirely switched out for the higher quality British & American fighters. Originally Cesar had found that bit to be sad, the idea that the Free French pilots had been pushed to get ride of their iconic planes for British & American ones, and he'd never been able to understand the decision. That was until now.

The fact that he was currently flying this plane was a feat of mechanical brilliance; as in order to do so the builders had been forced to study, alter, test, modify, test again, and then modify until that they'd been able to find a way for it to meet current French Air Force standards despite its ancient status. However, there were several problems with the plane's design. The first thing that Cesar had immediately noticed upon his flight being introduced to the recently restored planes was how incredibly tight the cockpit looked, a fact which no one would most likely understand until they'd been forced to be in the thing for as many test flights as Cesar had. Fighter cockpits weren't supposed to be spacious, they weren't supposed to be comfortable seeing how that wasn't their job, but the lack of room in this cockpit made it so that every single move that Cesar made with his legs caused him to feel as though he'd hit something that would send the plane flying off in some random direction. This made it so that the person inside would have to choose between incredibly stiff muscles or electing to deal with near panic attacks every time one shifted, effectively between a rock and a hard place.

"Green leader, this is Green-2, I think that I have sight of the settlement. Can you confirm?" a voice declared as Cesar's headset crackled to life causing him to instinctively lean forwards in order to confirm what he'd just been told. Squinting carefully Cesar proceeded squint as he attempted to examine the immediate area in front of him, patiently allowing for his eyes to traverse the immediate front he was facing. He was about to reply back with a negative when on the farthest reaches of his visual range he saw what looked to be the vague outlining of a wall, with what he soon recognized were a dozen or more houses dotting the opposite side of it.

"Green-2, this is Green Leader, I can indeed confirm, wait for the signal from the choppers and we'll return to base" Cesar replied before leaning back and attempting to settle back into his seat. In addition to being cramped the lack of a bubble designed cockpit canopy made scanning the majority of areas not immediately next to the plane difficult to properly see, making it obvious as to why the design had been abandoned by the majority of countries when the jet age finally arrived, but in the end Cesar had to simply grin and bare it.

"Green Leader, this is Ground control, do you read me over?" another voice asked, causing Cesar's temporarily silent headset to once again crackle to life.

"Ground Control, this is Green Leader, I read you over?" Cesar replied as he began scanning the area immediately around him to make sure that he was in no danger of causing a mid-air collision with any of the nearby air craft.

"Well Green Leader, the transports have given the all clear for you to return to base, turn to port and begin returning to base" the controller instructed.

"Roger, understood" Cesar replied before turning his attention back to the rest of his squadron.

"Roger, Green section turn to port and begin returning to base" Cesar declared, receiving a mix of replies before slowly beginning to turn and make the corresponding adjustments as he and his small group began the process of returning to base, hoping that the small group of helicopters that they were leaving wouldn't run into any trouble.

* * *

 **Hey guys,**

 **It's Jackie so the count as to the amount of time dedicated to training the 104th so far is as follows.**

 **A.(No chapters, make up a different unit)-0 votes**

 **B.(1-2 Chapters)- 3 votes**

 **C.(3-4 Chapters)-0 votes**

 **D.(5-6 Chapters)-0 votes**

 **Remember the voting will remain open until chapter 4 to 5, which can be subject to change if enough people request an extension, so feel free to place your vote to help determine how much the 104th will know about the weapons of their new allies. Hope to hear from you all soon.**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Jackie Robinson**


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own** **Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri** **while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. Please enjoy reading this story.**

 **And Thank you**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

 _'Hi'= Flashback thinking_

 _Hi=Intro_

 ** _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_**

Chapter 4

 _It was a normal day when they first arrived, the sun shining down from a light blue sky on what could be described as a warm day. It was nearing the time of year traditionally dedicated to the harvest and the issue of this year's collection of taxes had been hot on the minds of all of those who were involved in the king's seasonal calling of his court. The court had just been recessed, having gotten no where on the issue, and I was in the midst of peering out of one of the few windows that lay within the main chambers dedicated to the council when I first saw them approaching. At first they looked like a group of large grey clouds, which at first was puzzling considering how this was by far the driest part of the year, however as they continued to approach us it soon became clear that the approaching objects were by no means rain clouds. They looked as though they were something along the line of giant, multicolored, birds; except they lacked anything which could be considered as wings making it so that if they were indeed birds they shouldn't have been able to fly. As they continued to approach our settlement the Military Police guards began to sound the alarm causing those who responded to be divided into the two following camps, those who more or less panicked entirely unsure as to what to do and those who responded accordingly and began to take the required preocssionary measures. This mild sense of confusion made its transition into chaos as the birds proceeded to stop above the more open portions of the king's palace and slowly began to descend seemingly without a care._ _It was with this complete and utter sense of chaos that we found ourselves beginning down the road of modernization caused by contact with a world beyond our own, a road on which every step we took forwards could not be taken back._

 _-Diary of Herman Lodz Trost District advisor, currently stationed within Wall Sheena during the time of first contact_

* * *

"Gunners at the Doors!" someone shouted causing Alexander to glance up from his current routine of checking and re-checking his uniform pockets and magazine to make sure they were in top shape and look to see a soldier armed with a L108A1 make his way over towards the main entrance of the AS365 Dauphin, ready in case of an emergency. Seeing this Alexander proceeded to move his pointer finger near the safety of his SA80 so that he would be ready if he indeed had to use it.

'Hopefully that won't happen' Alexander thought to himself as he continued to notice the ground slowly getting closer and close, along with several figures that were currently gathering together to form a thin line across the area that they intended to land in.

"We've got possible hostiles organizing to possibly put up some sort of resistance" one of the soldiers at the door stated, causing Alexander's already uneven breaths to become worse. As the Dauphin progressively got closer to the ground more and more of the unknown combatant looking individuals began to form more shabby looking battle lines, causing them to eventually become arranged in several odd looking patterns. The supposed seconds that the typical landing would take suddenly began to feel as though they were being stretched into minutes and from there to hours as the tension within the tine metal aircraft began to rise, causing the air within the confined space to thicken to the point that one might've been able to cut the supercharged atmosphere with a knife. The condition continued to get worse so that when the soft thud that accompanied any helicopter landing was finally heard Alexander swore that he felt as though a giant weight had just been lifted from his shoulders, and also could've sworn that he heard the sound of someone releasing their breath. This thud was accompanied by the sound of the main entrance door of the helicopter being flung open causing the ordinarily inaudible sound of the door sliding across the outer metal of the helicopter to be suddenly become audible along with the sound of the first two soldiers at the entrance of the helicopter to suddenly be heard as they leapt from their spot in the helicopter. They were followed by the leading officer of the small squad which had been tightly packed into the helicopter like clowns into a small clown car, who was also followed by her second in command before finally allowing for Alexander to make his own rapid exit from the vehicle and raise his fire arm to help stabilize the perimeter.

Subconsciously Alexander turned the safety on his L108A1 off and levelled it up to his shoulder, in case things deteriorated so badly and so quickly that it needed to be fired. From the corner of his left eye Alexander could see two things, first the remaining members of his squad move to secured the more visually obscured side of the helicopter and second the sight of two men making their way towards the line of armed individuals. The two men were easily discernable as being the military & civilian attaches who'd been assigned to help begin the negotiating process with the natives of this world; the military man was in a typical uniform worn by a general when not on parade with a pistol strapped to his waist while the civilian was in a black suit and black tie. However, it was not the men themselves who'd managed to catch enough of Alexander's attention to warrant him moving his eyes away from the target in front of him but rather the people they were walking towards. If one looked solely at the style of their uniforms it would be easy to assume that they were some sort of variants of the aviators from the Second World War, as they boasted the same pilot jackets found on American bomber and fighter pilots; but when looking at their closes the same could not be said. Their shirts looked to have been sewn by hand along with their pants, which were covered in some sort of weird series of leather looking straps, and their boots look to have also been made mostly by hand if not entirely. All in all despite having the initial external wear from World War II overall they looked as though they were all from some sort of variation of the 10th or 9th centuries, then there was the matter of the emblems on their jackets and the gear which they sported.

The emblem looked to be some sort of green unicorn on a blue background with a silver-looking rim on a patch which, while resembling the initial design of the very patch on Alexander's shoulder, looked nothing like any emblem he'd ever seen. This confusion extended to the type of haphazard looking, silver colored gear which all of the soldiers sported on their hips that resembled two small circular drums that one might use on a LMG, a Thompson submachine gun, or a PPD/ PPSH. One would think that if they could make such circular drums then they would most likely have some sort of fire arm, but so far the only thing they'd sported in front of him and his squad mates were a single hand sword in each of their hand.

'What on earth is going on?' Alexander thought to himself as he proceeded to survey the rest of the line which had assembled in front of him.

"Wait!" a loud voice shouted, causing Alexander's partial attention to go towards the source allowing him to see that the two attaches were standing in front of these potentially hostile individuals.

"We come in peace and intend to do you know harm, we wish to speak with your leaders" this caused several of the individuals who stood opposite of them to slowly begin looking at one another, as if trying to find some sort of reassurance as to the soundness of their decisions.

"If you lay down your weapons, our men will neutralize theirs so that we may discuss things peacefully" the man added causing suspicious looks to flash over the faces of several of the individuals. What followed was a period of pregnant silence as the individuals to us neither acted nor reacted to the information that they'd just found themselves expose to, until a single voice broke the silence.

"Who...are...you?" The age of the person who spoke was fairly indistinguishable and based on the fact that it didn't appear that anyone in the immediate visual front had moved it made it obvious that the speaker was in the middle or rear rows of the column.

"I am General Alfred Hastings, citizen of the United Kingdom, and the man who stands here beside me is Henry Foche, French Republic, we desire an audience with your rulers" the general with the mega phone answered.

"You dare...an audience with the last king...?" another voice asked, forcing Alexander to once again be subject to the native's language. It was an unusual language that sounded to be a sort of ugly combination between English, French, and with the occasional German word but mainly relying on the first two. In the end the end result, while not entirely indiscernible, sounded like an incredibly unoriginal version of Haitian Creole written by a person that had never actually heard the language ironically making it easier to understand.

"I hate to break it to you son, but if my friend & I along with our soldiers exist and are able to be here in such a well trained capacity then yours is not the last king of humanity" General Hastings replied, causing several of the individuals who stood opposite of them to look as though they'd just been informed that a relative of theirs had been brutally murdered at random for some unfathomable reason. It was with this that a heavy silence fell over the two groups the difference being that the silence from the Coalition side came from an intense focus while the silence from their opposition came more so from the fact that the situation that they'd been brought up in was in reality no where near as bleak as they had all been informed that it was. Undoubtedly sensing that this was the prime opportunity to offer the olive branch Monsieur Foche proceeded to take the mega phone from the general's hands and raised it to his own lips and began to speak.

"My friends we do not intend either you or your ruler any harm, we wish to help you" he began, his French accent penetrating through every single word that he spoke.

"Our forces have medical & food aid waiting to be given to you, however this can only be achieved if we are allowed to have an audience with your king and set up an agreement of how to do so. It is with this intention that I personally beg you all to step aside and allow us through so that we can begin the process of aiding your people and your settlement" with that there was once again a silence. The immediate tension of such a revelation could once again be seen on several of the faces of the soldiers that were assembled in front of them, and deep down Alexander could understand that it was not an easy decision to make. These people had been forced to stand and watch as their entire world had been burned down in front of them as their government's highly isolationist policies and subsequent justification for doing so had been entirely destroyed in one swift action. The questions going through their minds were probably regarding as to if this was indeed the case, how much of the other things they'd been told about their entire lives was a complete lie? And quiet naturally the question as to why their king , their divine sovereign, who was supposed to act in their interests and take care of them would elect to do something like this? Fortunately, they didn't have to as the choice was made for them.

This decision came in the form of a loud trumpet blast which caused the majority of the soldiers on the opposing side, and a few of the Coalition troops, to turn their attention towards the subsequent sound. The source of the sound was revealed to be that of a rather tall looking man on horse back who was making his way towards the point of contact between the two groups, proceeded by a man armed only with what looked to be a valve less trumpet and a man who bore what was most likely the royal standard on a pole.

"Make way, make way" the man with the trumpet declared, causing all of the soldiers from the settlement in the immediate path to turn towards the three men before parting like the Red Sea. This façade continued all the way up until the man and his two attendants had reached the Coalition battle line, where they promptly stopped and the next phase of their pomp & circumstance began.

"State your name & business" the man declared, attempting to look confident and menacing at the same time.

"My name is Henry Foche, honorary diplomatic representative of the French Republic and this General Alfred Hastings, military representative from the United Kingdom, and on behalf of our government the two of us would like to meet with your king to discuss the terms with which we may begin administering humanitarian aid to your people as part of a possible military alliance" Monsieur Foche responded, repeating the statement he'd previously made.

"And why on earth would you believe that we would need to allow such an audience?" the diplomat asked, causing General Hastings to roll his eyes and Monsieur Foche responded almost instantly.

"I did not wish to have to do this but we know your settlement's position, your people are hungry & look to be in a good deal; of poverty, you seem to look as though you all live in constant fear of the enemy which lies beyond your walls, and from what I have gathered from your soldiers you have been forced to cut yourselves off from the world as a result. We can help you change that, but the process can only begin to happen if we are allowed to speak with your king" Foche replied, causing the proud looking diplomat to do his best to remain unfazed by this sudden dose of information.

"If that is your only request then I will plead your case to his royal majesty King Fritz and the response will be given to you tomorrow morning, until then the king says that you may remain here if you wish or you may return back to land from which you came" the diplomat replied, before turning around and making his way back towards the castle the standard bearer & trumpeter walking behind him. Unsure as to what to do next Monsieur Foche turned towards General Hastings and began to discuss what a proper course of action would be in response to this current chain of events, with the general eventually signaling for all the troops to stand down. As Alexander complied and turned the safety on his weapon back on several questions popped into his head. Would they elect to stay of return back to base? If they stayed how would they bring in more re-enforcements to guarantee that the small group was over run? Would the king of these people allow for them to help? If he refused what would they do? What could they do?

In the end this interaction had left more questions than answers, hopefully it would not be a sign for things to come.

 **Hey Guys,**

 **I would like to apologize for the long wait, I've hade some personal troubles which have made my schedule a little hectic recently. I hope to post another chapter before or by the end of this month detailing the negotiation process between the humans of the SnK universe and armed forces of our world. I originally wanted to put that interaction in this chapter but realized that with the way that the bureaucracy of SnK works that simply would not happed, at least not right away, so that's what'll be in the next chapter. Until then I hope that you enjoy this chapter and I thank you for electing to stick with this series so far.**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Jackie Robinson**


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own** **Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri** **while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. Please enjoy reading this story.**

 **And Thank you**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

 _'Hi'= Flashback thinking_

 _Hi=Intro_

 ** _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_**

Chapter 5

 _It is now day 5 of Operation Troy, 5 days since the first wave of Coalition troops proceeded to enter through the large Romanesque gate which appeared near the town of Mougins in Southern France, and as always due to military censors interested in protecting national security but we will tell you what we know. The French government released a statement earlier this morning indicating that the small diplomatic force detached to begin negotiations with the natives had indeed made contact, but was unable to begin the negotiation process. In response the Coalition elected to send a small unit of French Foreign Legion soldiers to help shore up the contingent of British Special Air Service Forces that had accompanied the two representatives yesterday as a security detail aimed at providing them protection. The Coalition forces intend to begin the process of negotiation today, but that may be subject to change should relations with the natives stagnate or begin to deteriorate, with the elected representatives assigned to the Coalition expected to receive a private audience with the ruler of the native inhabitants of this settlement. According to Coalition representatives the time in which the negotiations can begin & be finished will heavily affect when they may begin training local troops as well as when they can deem the area safe enough for U.N humanitarian groups and Red Cross medical teams to begin administering aid to the local populace. Unfortunately since the situation has only just recently begun to unfold we can only tell you the speculations made by Coalition leaders, but rest assured we intend to continue to cover this story as long as Canadian troops are involved in it._

In other news...

CBC Morning Report 9:13 am September 2nd, 2018

* * *

Attack on Titan Universe 12:30 pm September 2nd, 2018

King Fritz was accustomed to many things at his life, he was naturally accustomed to the being king, he was accustomed to the idea that he resided in the last known human settlement of their world and the pressures such a prospect brought, he was accustomed to the seemingly endless requests from the Survey Corps to launch expeditions outside the parts of the settlement that remained in human control, and he was now accustomed to the light rationing he endured as a result of losing Shinganshina. However one thing that the king was not accustomed to, and had not intention of being any time soon, was that of people coming to his castle uninvited who were in any position which did not give him the immediate advantage. Yet this was the situation that he found himself in as he sat at the head of a small table traditionally set aside for private one on one meetings with individual members of the nobility, now it was being used for a different purpose. International diplomacy and all of the difficulties that went with it. It was with this in mind that Fritz once again gazed across the room towards the two representatives that sat at the opposite end of the table he was at and the guards that they'd brought with them for their protection. The silence that currently rested within the room was almost suffocating as it created a sort of this miasma that was fueled by a combination of the summer heat, the tension of the situation, and the fact that it was highly likely that neither side wanted to make a move that might upset the other party. And it was in this silence that the two parties had sat for what must've been approximately 5 minutes, the culmination of two worlds that were previously divided by a wall of separation being suddenly and forcefully thrown together.

"Sir" one of the representatives from the other end, a Monsieur Foche if Fritz recalled correctly, stated subsequently breaking the wall of silence that had developed between the two parties causing all of the eyes in the room to fall upon him before he continued.

"Monsieur, may we begin?" If there was one thing that Fritz had noticed, and was subsequently thankful for, it was these visitors from another world were not able to speak in a tongue different to his own. While being no means entirely of the same linguistic pattern as the native high Tyserian* which was spoken in the royal court, or even the lower and more common form of it spoken in the outer sections of the city, it had enough in common so that there was no need for either side to provide an intermediary when talking. However, if he did indeed have to choose between the two gentlemen sitting near him he found that he could understand a good deal more of what the man in the more formal looking attire said than his companion in what looked to be some sort of cloth based military uniform.

'Can't imagine why he would bother wearing that at all, it would provide him no protection from any swords, spears, or even a lowly knife' Fritz thought as he turned to the subject of the rather menacing man who stood next to the negotiator who sat at the foot of the royal negotiating table. It was with this on his mind that Fritz lazily waved his right hand to signal for one of his aides to respond by stepping from his previously hidden spot diagonally behind the throne to address their guests.

"Yes, we may" the aide answered causing the man sitting across from Fritz to pull out what looked to be a large black book with an incredibly thick front & back cover before opening it to reveal several loose leaf pages inside of it.

"Well then your majesty might I say that it's a great honor to be able to meet with you so that we may properly discuss the way in which my government may aid your people" Monsieur Foche replied as he began to begin sorting out the papers in what looked to be the order in which he intended to hand them off to Fritz's aides. Fritz's response to this small delay was with the quiet patience that he'd come to perfect during his reign, it helped enforce the idea that he was the all knowing ruler of his people and as such had been gifted by the wall with superhuman amounts of patience and kindness. It also helped him to always have an edge over all the nobles who came to see him; as his patience and trade mark calm stare made it difficult to some, but for most impossible, to have any hope of understanding what was on their king's mind. Truth be told it had also served Fritz well when he was forced to deal with the more dull duties that came with being a ruler, giving him the rare luxury of being able to day dream for short periods of time when the nobles were mindlessly arguing amongst themselves or praising him to the point of boredom.

"Your majesty" a voice calmly said, causing Fritz to leave his thoughts and look to his right to see his aide holding a part of the document next to him, waiting for him to reach over and take it.

"Thank you" he replied taking it and beginning to attempt to read through the typical drivel that was any opening line of any political document he'd ever seen. For it's incredible size the document looked to contain very little noteworthy information once one got past the beginning few lines, this seemed to be because everything was written in two paragraphs but Fritz was only able to make out what the bottom of the two said. Most of the opening document looked to be regarding things such as terms of travel, temporary aid from these new forces, along with the question as to where all of these outsiders would be put up during their stay in the walls. As more and more of the document was gradually fed to him Fritz found himself listening to the wild ramblings of the man sitting opposite to him less and less, that was until he read over the last two on the last page of the document. The first of these two clauses spoke of how these outsiders intended to use their own military forces to "help" Fritz own military fight off the titans, with the already obvious gap between the two in weaponry to say such an involvement was undesirable was to make an understatement, however the second was even more concerning than the first. According to this second clause it made room for the recruitment of soldiers from the Cadet Corps for training using the weapons of these outsiders to establish the trade of military arms between the two factions as soon as the conflict was over, and naturally this did not sit well with Fritz, after all there had been an obvious reason that following the overthrow & murder of his predecessor he'd made every effort to army the military based on loyalty rather than skill. The arming of the Cadet Corps with the weapons these outsiders had brought with them would throw all that in jeopardy, making it so that for the first time in his reign Fritz was not three steps ahead of any potential rebels that may be in his camp, making the currently theoretical threat of a military coup a much more likely reality.

"Monsieur, is there something wrong?" Monsieur Foche asked, causing Fritz to look up from the peace of paper he was currently reading to face the speaker.

"Yes there is, here it says that you would like to not only use your own forces to aide in our struggle but also begin training our forces in similar forms of warfare" Fritz began, expecting that like much of the nobility he was forced to deal with everyday the combination of his tone and annunciation would indicate his displeasure of the idea.

"Your Majesty, I am sorry but I fail to see the problem with specific bit of the arrangement. We will provide military aid to your forces and then train a generation of your forces so that you can be prepared to fight when we're inevitably forced to leave this place" Monsieur Foche replied, casing Fritz to let out a sigh due to the fact he'd have to explain what he thought was obvious.

"Monsieur Foche the problem is not the forces you intend to use, but rather the forces you intend to leave behind" Fritz replied, causing his fellow negotiator to look to the man who stood beside him in bewilderment.

"What forces" he eventually replied causing Fritz to give off another sigh before continuing.

"The units that you intend to train from my populace" Fritz replied, the boredom in his tone preventing Foche from understanding how much the idea displeased the king.

"Your majesty, these forces would be trained by us with the sole intention of serving you & the people of your settlement, they would of no threat to you or your government" Foche answered, hoping that this fairly simple matter in the negotiating process would not be the cause for the entire derailment of the proceeding so far.

"So you say, but how can I be sure that there is no secret agenda that your rulers are planning? And that the minute you finish training these units they will won't overthrow me and install a glorified puppet in my place?" Fritz replied causing a sort of tension once again return to the room. Foche, however, had come to this whole preceding with his government on speed dial should something like this occur and truth be told it wasn't surprising. Foche had see men like the one standing in front of him many a time throughout his several years as a member of the French Foreign Service; he'd seen many African, Middle Eastern, and Latin American leaders who, despite there attempts to present themselves as rulers of the people, were nothing more than glorified megalomaniacs hungry for power. In the short amount of time he'd been here Foche had suspected that the ruler of these people might be the same as those dictators he'd seen before, he'd even hoped against it, but as he now realized it to be the truth he knew he'd have to think fast in order to keep the currently fragile peace intact.

"If you're so concerned about the loyalty of these troops, may I ask what you would have in mind as to regards to how these units should be organized and run?" Foche asked, effectively putting the ball in the king's corner, forcing him to come up with an idea to solve he problem he'd created. Unfortunately this question did not stun the king, in fact it seemed as though it played directly into his hand, much to the surprise of Foche.

"Actually I do have several ideas that I would greatly appreciate if they were meet" the king answered before one of his assistants handed him a small scroll, which Foche assumed the so called "requests" were written on.

"The first is that these units that are trained or lead by your officers are put under the constant supervision of a royal officer loyal to me, his duty will be to report any & all goings on or conversations he catches as a way to look for any signs of descent against me" he began before moving onto the next term.

"None of these units may visit either your nation or any of your camps outside of this city without their request being personally signed by the military commander in charge of the district they're station in and no more than 5 of these units may be on leave at a time and no more than 2 can leave the city for no longer than 5 days"

"If any of these soldiers die, retire, or are arrested they must be ceremonial discharged from their unit's service before being re-initiated into our forces; any living soldiers of these units who refuse to do so must sell all their possessions and move themselves, along with their loved one's, and their families from this city within 2 weeks time or they will be arrested as trespassing upon royal property"

"I would like at least one of my military advisors & a royal officers upon ever military council called by you or one of your allies call to discuss any matters regarding troop movement; be it in an offensive, defensive, or neutral manner" with that Fritz handed the demands over to Foche who took them and after briefly skimming them handed it to Hastings who began to skim it himself.

"What about the possibility of trade between our nations?" Foche inquired, attempting to return the two parties to a more level footing.

"That issue may be discussed at a later date, right now I solely wish to destroy these menaces which are assaulting my people" Fritz replied, causing Foche to let off an internal sigh of relief.

'Then we may still be able to trade with them after all the fighting is finished' he thought hopefully, however he wouldn't have been so optimistic if he knew what the man sitting opposite of him was thinking.

"So are these requests plausible for you and your superiors?" Fritz asked, causing Foche to be shaken from his personal thoughts.

"I cannot say immediately, but if you allow us to briefly adjourn then I may be able to contact my government to see how many of these requests we may be able to fulfill" Foche replied.

"Well then good day to you sir, I hope to see you tomorrow so that we may finish these affairs and start down the long road which lies ahead of us" with that the king rose, his entourage bowed, and he left the room followed by them. This left the two Coalition dignitaries and their delegation alone in the room, allowing them to begin to talking amongst themselves.

"Do you truly believe that these are 'requests'? They seemed to be nothing more than glorified demands, and the man who gives them seems to be nothing more than a glorified despot who cares little for his people" Hastings asked as Foche rose from his seat and began to leave the room.

"I know, but it would neither benefit us or the people he rules over if we should begin fighting his forces regardless as to how short the conflict may be" Foche began only to add before exiting.

"I will inquire with my government as to how many, if any, of these terms can be met" with that the two exited the room, intent on filling out the reports before sending them back to their respective superiors in Paris & London.

* * *

Presidential Palace, Paris, France 8:30 Western European Time

It had been several hours since a staff member of President Emmanuel Macron had delivered him the cable they'd received in regards to the negotiations being conducted with the native populace of this most recently discovered settlement on this foreign world, needless to say that it did not appear to have gone as well as he had hoped. It appeared as though the rule of the natives here was paranoid to say the least and as such had detailed as series of "requests" which he'd bene told by his informant on the ground an air of being glorified demands. On the surface they weren't too harsh; they didn't demand payments of foreign aid, the unlimited selling of arms, the penning of an alliance which force France to blindly approve and support anything & everything done by the settlement's government, or even the creation of trade which was incredibly one sided. It was just that it seemed to leave a lot unsaid in the extremely broad terms it described.

 _"These terms on their own aren't the problem, it's the fact that they leave a large gateway for modification due to such loose terms that should be the main point of conern Mr. President" Foche had replied when Macron had asked why the terms were so discouraging. But in the end he had also taken care to add one thing._

 _"If we desire any hope of being able to help these people with their government's consent it would be best if we agreed to sign on most of the requests, for I do not think that any citizens would dare go against their king with the strangle hold he has on power"_

'The republic cannot afford a repeat of the war like the one in Indochina where we fought not just a visible enemy but an invisible one as well, as such if I wish to guarantee the protection of the aid workers & prevent a long three faction war of attrition I have little choice, I must sign' Macron thought and proceeded to remove his fountain pen its place on the desk to sign the now more formal looking list of requests, not entirely as to what he, the nation of France, or the Coalition he'd so pain stakingly put together were getting themselves into.

* * *

*Tyserian=The language spoken by the people in the AOT universe, is a mixture of French, German, and English with a heavier focus of French & German

 **Hey everyone,**

 **Before I end this chapter I would like to remind all of you that the next chapter will be when the training of the 104th will begin so make sure to cast your votes to influence the length of time I devote to their training. I would also like to remind you guys that writing fewer chapters will mean that chapters will probably have to be longer to compensate for this, but regardless feel free to vote how you please. I will allow for two weeks to pass before I begin writing the chapter at which the poles will close, so this should give you guys roughly until June 11th to continue voting so don't be afraid to let your voice be heard. Finally I would once again like to thank all the readers who elected to read this far into this fanfic and I hope that you have found this chapter to also satisfy your taste for fiction. I look forwards to reading the votes from you all and adapting my story accordingly, but before I go here's one last update on the voting so far.**

 **A. No training for 104th (Possibly make up a new unit): 0 votes**

 **B. A Little training (1-2 Chapters): 3 votes**

 **C. A Descent Amount (3-4 Chapters): 1 votes**

 **D. A Lot (5-6 Chapters): 0 votes.**

 **Remember it's still any idea's race and I would like to reinforce the fact that your votes does indeed count. Hope to publish for you all soon.**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Jackie Robinson**


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own** **Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri** **while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. Please enjoy reading this story.**

 **And Thank you**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

 _'Hi'= Flashback thinking_

 _Hi=Intro_

 ** _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_**

Chapter 6

 _September 13th, 2018_

 _It's now been 16 days since beginning of Operation Troy and 5 days since the official signing of the treaty between the Coalition's government representatives and the ruler of the now recognized Kingdom of Eldia King Fritz Gwerder agreeing upon the terms under which our forces would be expected to aid the Eldians. The terms call for the use of Coalition troops to work as intermediaries and aid in the spreading of necessary food & medical relief to the civilians who reside within the outer most zones of the settlement. It also allows for the creation of a militia unit that would be trained by a small group of Coalition instructors and briefly led by officers from the Coalition force before transferring them over to be controlled by the Eldian government. With the treaty signed Coalition forces were able to officially begin being transferred into the settlement and begin being stationed at within their pre-assigned districts of surveillance along with the beginning of supervised distribution of aid materials within each district that is currently occupied by Coalition units. Due to the recent introduction of military units into these areas and the overall lack of protection we were unable to send any reporters into the zones themselves, but as soon as we can get journalists in them we will begin feeding you whatever information that we're able to gather. In addition to this the first Red Cross & UN relief vehicles have begun to assemble on our side of the border under the protection of UN military units, they're set to enter the gate on September 18th and intend to begin distributing relief supplies in the designated outer districts as soon as they're designated as safe._

 _Meanwhile on our nation's home front things have unfortunately taken a turn for the worse as critics from the Front Nationale* have begun to call into question the way in which the president has been conducting the war with their chief spokesman, representative Henry Duvalier, having gone on record stating the following._

" _Members of the National Assembly do my ears deceive me have we really just agreed to the terms dictated to us by some half wit king who sits in a glorified wooden shack in a third world mud whole? Our country is much greater than theirs, boasting one of the most advanced and successful economies in the world and an army to match. So tell me members of the National Assembly do my ears deceive me? If they are not, then our 'president' is truly mad along with any who agree with him! If these backward savages truly fear us then it is best that we make good upon that fear to reclaim the former glory of France, for now is as good a time as any to use the cards which have been left to us to steak a claim in this new world's soil! For the benefit of those who live their along with our own"_

 _Since the making of these statements President Macron has made a public declaration of his intentions to possibly create a National Coalition between himself, the French Republican Party, the Democratic Movement, French Centrist Party, and the moderate wings of the Socialist Party to possibly garner more national support for the war; the results of which are yet to be seen. In addition to this recent censuses have shown an increase of military enlistment in the regular army by 39% and an increase of entrance in L'Ecole Militaire* by 29% and recent polls have so far shown that 76% of the French public support the current military & humanitarian operation as it stands, with many commenting that they desire a quick affair with low casualties. Now in other news..._

 _\- France 24 Evening Broadcast_

* * *

September 13th, AOT Universe, Eldian Military Training Camp 13, Late Morning

The bright late summer sun shone down upon the long four row column of trainees as they stood at attention in the middle of one of the various military training grounds of the Eldian military, unceremoniously dubbed Camp 13. To the average Eldian civilian Camp 13 was just a rumor, a old tale from spun by military veterans who'd long since lost their sanity and now felt as though the only way to gain it was to speak publicly of their torture, and in fact the reality was even more inglorious. The Camp itself was truly nothing more than a glorified cog in the large machine that was the great archipelago of camps used to train, house, equip, and feed the Eldian military and this particularly miserable camp was run by one training instructor Keith Shadis. Unlike most of the training instructors who were given the luxury of being stationed at such a training post Shadis had actually seen action via leading one of the Survey Corps' many, and seldom successful, expeditions outside the small settlement controlled by the Eldian royal monarchy. It had been this exposure to the brutal realities of the combat which awaited those who elected to join the military in their people's struggle against the Titans and it was this knowledge that drove him to be so brutal in his initiation of members into the military family, but even he was surprised by the situation that he now found himself apart of.

Shadis had just finished his usual initiation of the civilians in their transition to becoming the status of trainees, and he could already tell that some of those who'd perceived the army as an easy route to a full stomach & a consistent pay-check from those who were legitimately interested serving the king, nothing a little shouting in one's personal space couldn't fix, but even he was on his toes. The reason for him being in his alert state lay almost entirely in the small group of individuals, all of whole were in different uniforms, standing to his immediate right and had been examining his every move like a bunch of hawks. From the moment that he'd heard of the arrival of the foreigners and of their incredibly well developed weapons Shadis had known that as long as they remained as allies they would be able to aid in the turning of the tide in the war against the Titians and it might finally lead to the end. However it was already easy to tell that this alliance would be fraught with difficulties simply based on the terms which these foreigners had requested this new batch of recruits that they'd be overseeing to be instructed was weird and it had begun with their uniforms. Instead they'd requested that rather than having them utilize the uniforms of old these foreigners desired to provide them unique uniforms of their own making to help distinguish them from the other military branches, which meant that his usual greeting of the new cadets had been done while they were still in their civilian clothing rather than the traditional Cadet Training Corps uniforms. Hopefully this new alliance would lead to the end, the end of the state's seemingly endless calls for civilians to be pressed into military service to deal with the Titan threat, the end to the seemingly endless loss of youths to the nation's ever failing war effort, which would mean the end to the ever growing list of memorial funerals for military casualties. The sound of military boots walking on the wooden stage broke Shadis from his thoughts allowing him to see the military officer, possibly a general, walking towards the lip of the stage so that he could better address the 15,000 volunteers in front of him.

"15,000 volunteers, 15,000 soldiers, and if I repeat my mistakes of the expedition 15,000 casualties" Shadis muttered to himself as he watched the man in uniform stop upon reaching what he presumed was the lip of the stage.

"Cadets, volunteers, citizens of Eldia my name is Corps General Jean-Claude Dreyfus and I am the commanding officer that has been assigned to oversee the training of every single one of you as part of this unit" the man began moving his hands behind his back and clutching them possibly as a sign of confidence or unsureness or perhaps a combination of both.

"I would first like to thank you all for having made the decision to join the military in order to protect your fellow human beings and I must add that for your decision you will be duly rewarded, as the traditional payment of 5 copper coins per soldier per week served will be doubled to 10 copper coins per soldier per week served" the moment that this was said the various cadets began turning to each other and speaking amongst themselves, no doubt gossiping as to what or who they intended to spend their money on the minute that they got their first paycheck. However, they weren't allowed to use such a luxury for more than a few seconds.

"Silence!" Shadis shouted, his voice echoing throughout he entirety of the camp the sheer authority laced within it causing all the cadets in front of him to immediately return to attention, especially those who had so recently been forced to personally experience the total focus of his wrath.

"However, I must tell you all that the doubling of the amount of money in your paychecks should by no means be mistaken as leisure pay for in reality it is hazard pay. Unlike other units you will not be given a choice as to what branch of the military you join because in order for this unit to be effective we must solely pledge to work alongside the Survey Corps to take ground and secure it for safety of your people" The minute the words left the general's mouth a sense of dread instantly swept over the large group of cadets and along that came a silence, a different sort of silence than before, the silence of a group of people who are of the mind that they've just been earmarked for death.

"As you know that branch of the military has a 70% casualty rate among those who join it and that it is for this reason that I advise the following; if you have young children and are their only guardian, old relatives for whom you are the only care taker, or a family to which you are the only breadwinner I highly recommend that you consider going to the head office of this camp in the next few days and resign from the military, for their sake if not your own. For the rest of you, I simply as that ever last one of you bear down and stick with the program we're going to put you through over the course of the next year, and I guarantee that you will be more than ready to defend the one's you love" With this silence once again returned over the large group of trainees, as though the general was allowing for each trainee to have a personal moment of thought before continuing on.

"Now before I dismiss you I would like to call upon you for volunteers to aid in the creation of a new military unit that will be critical in the ensuing military campaign that we intend to launch, those who elect to join this unit will become part of the Auxiliary Air Force until they can be properly integrated into the new Eldian military, will all those willing to become part of it please step forwards" with this conclusion there was once again an aura of silence which was only broken by one lone recruit stepping forwards. The girl was rather short and sported what looked to be white skin and black hair and a level of meekness that made anyone instantly question why she'd elected to join the military.

'If my memory serves me right that's the Carolina girl, never figured that she'd be willing to join an elite unit of any sort due to the fact she barely looks as though she could be a member of a regular unit; but life is full of surprises' Shadis thought to himself.

"What is you're name soldier?" the general asked causing the attention of the whole group of recruits to suddenly fall upon her resulting in the shaking which racked her body to get even worse.

"M-M-Mina C-Carolina " the soldier replied, her head looking down in what was possibly a hope to relieve some of the attention put on her. An attempt that failed miserably.

"Mrs. Carolina if for some reason you were called to give something up to protect your people what would you be willing to give up?" the general asked causing another wave of silence to follow the question, that was until another young individual stepped forwards.

"What is your name cadet?" the general asked, causing the blond haired individual to stiffen up and make a face which made Shadis think that the bow was either holding in his breath...or constipated.

"Thomas Wagner, sir" the boy replied, the tension on his body not easing up what so ever.

"All of you look, these two brave individuals have elected to step forwards and pledge their lives to the defense of not just their families but you as well, who else boasts the will to join them?" slowly, also so slowly, others came from forwards and proceeded to announce their name; in total 16 young individuals elected to take the plunge and join this secret unit and none of them knew the wild ride which lay ahead of them.

* * *

September 13th, AOT Universe, Eldian Military Training Camp 13, Mid-Afternoon

Armin had thought many things throughout the course of his short life. When he'd first head of it he'd thought that the idea of their being a world outside of the walls to be a sort of glorious realm forever out of his reach. When his parents had left him with his grandfather one dark early spring evening saying that they were going on a short trip & to be a good boy while they were gone he'd assumed that he'd see them in a few days, a week at most, but had never seen them again and could say now that he was extremely confident that he never would see them on earth again. When his grandfather been forced to suspend telling him the nightly epic that was his bed time story because he'd been "recruited' to join the military expedition that aimed to take back the Shinganshina district; he'd thought that even if the expedition failed his grandfather would come back to tell him the next installment in the story that night, after all his grandfather was too smart to die. Now nearly 9 years later he was still waiting to hear the next part of the story. And finally when he'd agreed to join the military along with Eren & Mikasa he'd done so because he honestly thought that it was better than starving to death in the fields, but never in a million years did he think that he would be forced to wear the ugly, brown, thing that he currently donned in the middle of this mysterious training camp.

"Armin!" a loud voice shouted, causing the said boy in question to be pulled from his thoughts and turn to see his two friends, Eren and Mikasa, walking towards him in their own uniforms with Eren looking about as thrilled at his new uniform as Armin was while Mikasa dawned her normal neutral expression.

"Can you believe this?" Eren asked upon reaching him, pulling at one of the sleeves from his uniform as if to emphasize his frustration.

"Well they certainly are unusual" Armin replied, his right arm raised behind his head as tried to create a sort a relaxed attitude that might possibly calm down Eren. Needless to say it didn't.

"Of course they're unusual, they look like those potato sacks we used to harvest vegetables back on the state farms" Eren began, his arm gestures slowly becoming wild as his pent up frustration slowly was released before continuing.

"How's anyone, let alone ourselves, supposed to take us seriously?"

"It's not like the uniform we wear matters, if we kill the highest amount of Titans they'll have to respect us" Mikasa said, throwing in her opinion on the matter in a nonchalant manner & tone that made I almost seem as though she didn't care about the matter.

"And what the hell is this?" Eren asked as he pulled the shoulder strap of the small bag that the foreigners had given him from over his shoulder and withdrew from it the large tin bowl that lie within it.

"Maybe it's how they cook their food?" Armin answered, causing Eren to roll his eyes.

"Maybe it's a hat?" Mikasa suggested causing Eren to place the thing on his head.

"Oh yes, because this will be so~ effective in protecting me from the mouth of a Titan" Eren replied while using the straps to jostle the helmet from side to side to emphasize his mocking of the idea. While the two continued their argument, with Eren harshly examining and questioning each and every single detail of the uniform mentioning its color, thickness, and general design several more times with Mikasa offering the occasional rebuttal or suggesting some sort of explanation in response to each one of his statements. Armin listened, though not too carefully, as these the conversation came to pass only for someone else to catch his attention not because of their physical look, nor because he knew them but instead because of the clothing that she looked to be wearing. If his memory served him right she was one of the first volunteers for the secret unit which was being put together and the uniform she dawned looked to be a representation of it. There were many differences with the first being that her uniform was of a dark bluish color rather than the mud brown that coated the uniform he, Eren, and Mikasa wore, the second being that the uniform boasted yellow epilates on each of her shoulders, and the final was that her had had a looked be a sort of top hat with a short black visor and a high top*.

'I wonder what they told he when they held her & the other volunteers back for those few minutes while the rest of went to get our training uniforms fitted' Armin curiously thought, subconsciously raising his hand to his chin. Unfortunately, Armin was not permitted too much time to think on the subject as his mind was pulled from its musings by a simple question.

"...right Armin?" a voice, from the tone of it probably Eren, asked causing him to turn around and look towards his two friends.

"Sorry, I wasn't listening" Armin replied causing Eren to roll his eyes.

"I was telling Mikasa that there's no way that those people can hope to kill, let alone successfully defeat the Titans" Eren declared, repeating his previous statement.

"Well these people obviously have a system in place, and it's obviously worked in the past, maybe we should give it a try" Armin replied trying to remain neutral, but he could already see by the look on his friend's face he had failed in his objective and that his punishment would be a long, fruitless conversation.

* * *

September 13th, AOT Universe, Eldian Military Training Camp 13, Mid-Afternoon

Cesar couldn't help but let off a fatigued yawn as he stood inspecting the large group of recruits that was organized in front of him, aimlessly conversing between themselves on various things that they probably found important and as much as he knew he should've been joining in and conversing with them he honestly didn't have the stamina or interest to do so. The reason for Cesar's weariness could be easily traced back to the transfer that he and his second in command had been issued that resulted in him being moved from his original posting at the air base just on this side of the gate, aptly named Fort Bonaparte after France's first Emperor. The transfer had been delivered at the twilight of the previous day and had been ordered to be honored immediately, meaning that the two of them had been given only 15 minutes to pack before being forced onto a Lockheed C-130 Hercules along with 62 other unfortunate souls, most of who were from the ground branch of the Foreign Legion, as part of a long convoy of troops & supplies aimed to begin the relief effort planned for the settlement. However, unlike the rest of the troops involved the two of them were bundled into a small Renault GBC 180 and driven down the settlement's bumpy dark age streets & off to this Godforsaken training ground in the middle of nowhere arriving far enough from the crack of dawn so that they could unload without being seen by any of the recruits they'd been tasked to train and possibly lead into battle but not far enough for them to get enough sleep. After grappling with this reality there was also the fact of the uniforms which his recruits were wearing.

'I knew that the Russians had kept a few of their uniforms from their old Soviet days, but good Lord they look as though they're part of the old Soviet military' Cesar thought while glancing at the large group of trainees. The whole group had been given the old Soviet uniforms in helmets, minus their iconic red & gold stars of course, and the sight of the ugly uniforms caused him to roll his eyes which, as a result of the lack of sleep, caused Cesar to experience a brief yet extreme head ache.

"Should we set them at ease for tomorrow sir,?" A voice asked causing Cesar to glance to his right and see Joseph standing next to him, a similar weary look in his eyes.

"Sure" Cesar began before grabbing Joseph by the arm and adding "but how about while I do that you go to the mess and see if you can obtain two cups of coffee or tea or chocolate, anything to wake us up". Joseph responded to this request with a firm nod before going off in search of proverbial mess and the any hot drink it may contain while Cesar himself turned back towards the recruits in preparation to address them as he looked to see what must've been the pre-assigned drill Sargent walking up from his left.

"Attention!" Cesar shouted causing all of the recruits in the yard to slowly turn towards him in response to a call that would've caused well trained soldiers to snap to attention, a sign of how far the group had to go.

'The drill Sargent is going to have fun eating all of you for breakfast' Cesar thought with his gaze going and falling upon two girls of varying height, one with blond hair & the other with brown hair, but both sporting looks of boredom on their faces 'especially you two, it's a pity that I won't be able to be apart of it'.

"My name is Cesar Khansari I have been tasked with the training & guiding of the volunteers of your nation's new air force, I have been informed that we are going to let the lot of you have the rest of the day off so that you can break your new uniforms in" he began causing the group to begin to return to its previous business before he could add the following.

"But, you are warned here today that starting tomorrow you will all rise at 6:30 am, be at breakfast by 7:15 am, and at 7:45 am you will be ready to begin your training you will receive the rest of your daily schedule tomorrow " Cesar stated, remembering the statement that he'd spent the hours that she should've been sleeping reading while also looking at the astonished looks on all the cadet's faces.

"Now with that, you're dismissed" he finished before watching the whole group once again disperse, no doubt to speak over the information that they'd just been delivered.

* * *

September 13th, AOT Universe, King Fritz's Private study, Eldian Royal Palace Evening

King Fritz sat in the high backed chair that lay in his study, his head facing towards the wall opposite to the door with a small goblet of the finest wine from the castle cellars in his hand and a map of the kingdom in front of him on his desk. To say that he wasn't in a good mood was to have the gall to make a bold understatement of the king's thoughts on the situation that he now found himself in, and he partially knew who to blame and punish as a result. Sipping from his goblet of wine the king cast his gaze down upon the large map in front of him and examined its geographic and political layout for what must've been the hundredth or possibly even thousandth time in the past hour. The tradition of map making had been passed down to him from his father who received the tradition from his own father, Fritz's grandfather, and ever since the royal family had made a habit of redrawing to the map at the same time of the year every year of each ruler's reign. The map was not a simple outline of the kingdom's borders but was infinitely more important than that as it contained notes on that year's harvests, the land on which the harvest's were being brought to effectively gage whether or not the yield was a freak event or average, and finally listed the political families who had been tasked with running the land. Now as Fritz looked at this year's newest rendition of the map, the first time he'd looked at it in a few weeks, he was mentally underlining the names of several families in red; a sign of their gradually increasing dissatisfaction.

'The fire always existed up until now, but some's intentionally stoked the fire making it so that the delicate food which was being cooked on top of it now is nothing more than a charred mess' Fritz thought as he put the goblet down on the table. He didn't have long to continue to ponder the situation as he was interrupted by a knock at the door.

'Ah, he's arrived' Fritz thought before responding.

"Come in" he answered, causing the door to slowly opening with a creak followed by the sound of several footsteps made by what sounded like several persons.

"You called for me your majesty?" a shaky, cowardly sounding voice asked causing the king to smile.

"Ah Father Nick yes I did, will you please shut the door" Fritz replied, causing the creaking sound of the door to follow along with the sound of a click.

"What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?" Nick asked causing Fritz to take another sip of his wine before answering. God, or should he say Walls, he hated that man; he hated every single bit of him and his stupid cult. Ever since he was a child he'd found them and their teachings to be so blindly hopeful and idealistic that it was sickening, but his father was indeed right when it came to their effect on the populace.

'They are quiet effective at pacifying the populace' Fritz thought as he poured himself another drink from his goblet.

"Yes Nick I was just wondering about something, would you like a drink" Fritz began, pausing temporarily to perform the required lip-service of being a nice host.

"Oh, no thank you your majesty it's one of the many things that I swore off upon becoming a priest" Nick replied causing Fritz to set down the bottle of wine before continuing.

"If I remember correctly you and your followers conducted a prayer service a week before the outsiders arrived on our shores, correct?" Fritz asked, in a calm tone that to any normal politician would cause some sort of alarm upon hearing it's tone. Unfortunately for Father Nick he did not have such political savvy and as such elected to respond to the question as truthfully as he could.

"Yes I did, and the Walls granted us these saviors from a foreign land to free us from the tyranny of the Titans" Nick answered, causing Fritz to temporarily pause before swallowing his current mouthful of wine with a loud gulp.

"I thought so" Fritz began before pausing to take another sip of his wine.

"You thought what?" Nick asked as Fritz finished his sip before putting down his cup.

"Father Nick, do you remember my father's protection edict?" Fritz asked, taking a look inside his goblet to gage the amount of wine left in it.

"Yes, it prohibited the traveling of any individuals beyond the walls along with the letting in of any individuals from the outside, but I fail to see-" Nick began, only to be cut off by the sound of the king's goblet slamming down upon the table in front of him.

"So you admit that despite knowing of this law you called for deliverance from the outside?!" Fritz all but shouted causing Nick along with, for that matter, the guards on either side of him to flinch while subconsciously taking a step backwards.

"Well your majesty, when you put it like that-" Nick began, trying to reason the charges being made against him, but was never able to finish his statement.

"Guards, arrest the good father here on charges of violating the protection act and thus committing a treasonous act with the goals of overthrowing the monarchy!" Fritz shouted as he stood up and turned to face the trio at the entrance of his room. Poor Nick had no time to react as each guard on either side of him took hold of one of his arms, firmly grasping them before raising them into an extremely painful position behind his back that caused them to bear most of his body weight. As such Nick's reaction to going from a natural standing position to such an uncomfortable one was to let out first a gasp in shock and then a cry of pain as the ligaments were forced tp bear an unnaturally large amount of weight. However, Nick was never given the chance to let out all of his pain as the air was forced from his lungs by a strong kick to the gut as a hand firmly grabbed his face and lifted it upwards to bring him to look square in the face of the man who had up until a few seconds ago been a good friend but now seemed to be the architect of his current state of misery.

"You know the only punishment for such a crime is death by hanging, do you not Nick?" Fritz asked, the dropping of the title "Father" an indication of Nick's sudden and most unpredictable fall from grace.

"A sentence to be carried out immediately" Fritz added, causing Nick's look of surprise to become one of terror.

"Your Majesty" Nick cried out in an attempt to appeal to his king's good nature.

"Guards, take this traitor out of my sight!" Fritz ordered, causing the two guards in question to turn and drag the poor man out of the door.

"Wait...WAIT! Your majesty, I have done nothing wrong! What of the people? What of the people?!" Nick cried out as he was dragged away from the chamber, leaving Fritz alone top ponder what he had just done. Turning back to his desk he walked back to it and poured himself another glass of wine before beginning to move towards the next part of his plan. The various Wallist worship sites would have to be seized and guarded with new priests being appointed to take the place of the ones previously associated with Nick, and this plan would have to continue until further notice. All he'd need to do is connect such an event to the arrival of outsiders and then he could properly expel them and cut off all ties with that world, but not before sucking all of the information he could from them.

"Whatever it takes" Fritz spoke to himself before taking a sip of whine, remembering the last words of his father before he died.

 _"Fritz, my son, whatever it takes protect the throne...and do whatever it takes..."_

* * *

Front Nationale* = French far-right political party

L'Ecole Militaire*= French Military Academy where the French Military trains its officers in the naval, army, and air force branches

 **Hey Everybody I hoped you enjoyed this chapter and gear up, boot camp starts tomorrow with various days & events taking place in each chapter. **

**Sincerely,**

 **Jackie Robinson**


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri** **while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. Please enjoy reading this story.**

 **And Thank you**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

 _'Hi'= Flashback thinking_

 _Hi=Intro_

 ** _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_**

 **Hey guys,**

 **It's Jackie Robinson, I would like to say thank you for reading this many chapter of my fanfiction and I hope that you have find this one to be good as well. I'm also sorry for the long wait, I've had trouble balancing my schedule due to a recent increase in my work schedule that has caused a derailment of my normal schedule. I also understand your concerns about masses of text and have tried to divide it up as much as possible, please feel free to critic me if it's still not very good, I also apologize for that in advance due to the large amount of things I have to describe. So sit back and enjoy chapter 7 of _And thus the French Foreign Legion Fought Here._**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Jackie Robinson**

Chapter 7

September 14th, AOT Universe, Eldian Military Training Camp 13, Early Morning

When Sasha Braus had heard the previous morning that she and rest of cadets of the 104th would be woken up at 6:30 am and given a total of 45 minutes to prepare for breakfast she'd conjured up a general depiction about the manner in which the whole this would be conducted. First she had assumed that there would a small grace period allowed for herself and her fellow cadets in order to proper allow for the gradual adjusting of such a schedule, with a great deal of care and patience by those in charge as compensation. To say that she was the only member of the corps that had pieced together such a peaceful, and hopelessly naïve, image as to what awaited them the following morning would be entirety incorrect. Which is why that they received said following morning was all the more unfortunate. For it was to be the following morning that the cadets of the 104th Training Corps were to receive the wake-up call that would serve as just a taste of the reality that was to come.

 _Sasha had been laying in bed in a deep peaceful sleep, dreaming of enjoying a meal of the freshly smoked meats she and her father often prepared back at their home. She sat in front of a large table with a large ham in front of her, a gift from her father for some reason or other that she was too zoned out to pay attention to at the current moment, she was just about to begin her hardy meal by harpooning the poor meat item when a loud blaring noise suddenly interrupted her dream. She tried, albeit briefly, to continue the dream via beginning her feast but found that the loud noise was interrupting the sense of smell she'd previously had in it and as such could taste nothing. It was with this that she reluctantly allowed herself to open her eyes, officially waking up, before being confronted by the sounds of her fellow barrack mates groaning in response to hearing the same loud noise._

 _It was after a few minutes of enduring the noise that Sasha realized that it was not the loud blaring of a random instrument but rather from a sort of trumpet, she recognized it from the fact that the sheep herders that made most of the clothes in the village used to communicate with their sheep dogs as ways to signal when to move the sheep or bring them in. When the bugle sound inevitably came to an end there was a temporary sigh of relief as most of the cadets within the room looked to maybe return to sleeping, but this was also not to be as almost instantly as this thought crossed Sasha's mind the loud sound of a fist pounding on the door could be heard; reaffirming that the time for sleeping was officially over._

 _"Hey, you lot up and Adam! Grab your clothes and head to the showers, I'll be back in 10 minutes and anyone I find here will have to do 50 push-ups before they can go to the showers!" a person, presumably the cause of the banging on the door, shouted as loud as they could before the sound of footsteps could be head moving away from the barrack. With little choice Sasha proceeded to rise from bed, grab her uniform, put on her boots, and make her way towards the showers so that she could get clean and get fed before the training that she had **willingly signed up for** began._ _However, if she had thought that adjusting to her new schedule would be as easy as that she was sorely mistaken and as she stood in line she was beginning to regret spending so much time pondering as to what this supposedly "new" menu of food would be before she had gone to bed._

'If I just close my eyes for a few seconds, maybe I won't feel so sleepy' she thought, failing to notice the fact that she was swaying now or the fact that she was already developing bags under her eyes. Taking her own advice she proceeded to briefly close her eyes in an attempt to appease her body's demands for at least another moment of rest before fully taking on the day, a decision which left her vulnerable to the coming count that was making its way down the line causing her to miss her pre-assigned number.

"19..." There was a short pause after the statement of the number and it provided enough of a pause for Sasha to realize that it was implied that she was next, but sadly not enough time for her to take action to prevent the repercussions of her not speaking in time.

"Private Braus!" a loud voice shouted, causing Sasha to physically feel a tremor go up her spine forcing her to stand up straight at the declaration of her name.

"Y-y-yes Drill Sergeant" she replied in the tone of someone who knew that they had placed themselves in a position that could result in them being put though the ringer and was now bent on getting out of that position as fast as possible.

"What did I say that this morning's first exercise was?" the sergeant in question; a rather middle aged man with white skin, blue eyes, and what looked to be dirty blond hair hidden under his hat asked as he began to slowly lean forwards towards her.

"T-that we were going to sound off" she replied, sweat already beginning to form on her brow under the man's gaze.

"And what was your number?" the sergeant asked, slightly leaning closer to her.

"20" Sasha replied, secretly hoping that the current conversation was not going where she thought it might be.

" **SO THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU NOT STATE YOUR NUMBER WHEN YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO!?"** the drill sergeant now shouted, now almost face to face with her allowing for her to have little choice but to look him straight in the eye. There was something frightening about the man's eyes, their darkness, their passion, the way that they seemed to bore their way past your own eyes and into your very soul. It unnerved Sasha and made it so that she'd begun to sweat unconsciously on her brow as well as force her mind to run almost a million miles per hour in an attempt to give a reason, any reason, as to why she'd failed to follow such a basic order. And naturally this meant that in her hast to find and explanation she failed to examine it properly and make sure it was not simply a lame excuse.

" **WELL?"** the drill sergeant asked again, his voice have not changed its volume or its tone.

"W-well you sir, I sort of nodded off and before I knew it you'd already reached-" she began only to be cut off by the sergeant in question.

"Oh okay private I completely understand, we can't properly move forwards until your wide awake" the sergeant declared causing Sasha to experience the briefest moment of relief before hearing what he said next.

"Seeing as to how Private Braus is oh so fatigued I guess that we have no choice to continue doing this exercise until she gets it right, then we'll know she's awake won't we" the drill sergeant declared causing a series of groans to erupt from the line of Cadets.

" **WHAT WAS THAT?!"** the sergeant shouted, causing the whole line to straighten up again before giving its reply of.

"Yes, sir!" with that the sergeant proceeded to calmly walk to the beginning of the line before beginning the count again, and this time Sasha didn't fall asleep.

* * *

September 14th, AOT Universe, Eldian Military Training Camp 13, Afternoon

To say that Armin was relieved when he sat down for lunch at the camp mess would be one of the greatest understatements of the entire day, for the past few hours it had had been the only thing on his mind. To say that the previous drills that the young civilian turned soldier in training had been forced to endure since the morning were tedious would have to once again have made a complete understatement as well as providing a tip as to how little knowledge one had about military training. Like the rest of his fellow cadets Armin had been roused from his bunk at 6:30 in the morning and given time to shower, dress, and eat breakfast before going out to perform the first of many drills to come and like most of the cadets he hadn't been fully awake during the entire ordeal.

However, the whole thing hadn't really begun to become frustrating until the entirety of the Corps had been divided up into several different division, battalions, companies, and squads all of whom had been instructed to organize in a sort of rank and file manner for a sound off. Despite the best attempts of Armin and others in their division the group had been forced to repeat the drill nearly 2 dozen times, as the drill sergeant charged with overseeing demanded that they not be dismissed for the next drill until they had gotten it perfect.

 _"This is training you for battle" he had said as he paced in front of the them at the end of the inspection "and you cannot afford to be sloppy or slow in battle, such failures to adapt or react will cost you your life on the battlefield; I guarantee it!"_

With memory fresh in his mind all Armin could do was to let out a sigh before proceeding to pick up the standard issued spoon that came with his soup to begin eating. As he set his spoon into the deliciously warm looking liquid the couldn't help but notice the many ripples that came from the contact and it was then that he realized that his hand was shaking.

'From fear, anticipation, or the realization that I've long since passed the point of return and the only way out is through a ceremony for graduation or a dishonorable discharge' Armin thought to himself before allowing the soup to fill his spoon and shoving it into his mouth, his eyes closing whilst donning a smile of contentment at the taste. However, he was ripped from his silent musings by the sound of a platters being set down at his table and opened his eyes to find Eren, surprisingly accompanied by Reiner & Berthold, sitting in front of him with similar food on their plates.

"Oh hey guys, how've things been?" Armin asked, a question which earned him frustrated glances from Eren and Reiner as well as a disinterested one from Berthold.

"How do you think we've been, you were in the same division as us" Reiner answered, causing Armin to raise his hands and subconsciously lean back in response.

"Just wanted to know, I mean that training wasn't easy" he began only to have Eren jump in this time.

"Of course it wasn't easy, it was utter torcher" Eren interrupted, attempting to sit up to make his declaration only to wince as he his back was forced into the previously stiff position it had dawned for past few hours. After the roll call the drill sergeant had begun to instruct them in the manner of marching, specifically instructing them on how amazingly bad they were at anything related to marching before vowing to not let them continue onto the next drill until they had at least become somewhat descent at it. Nearly 3 hours later the large group, having taken a few breaks, was still attempting to walk together in sink whilst standing perfectly straight and was still nowhere near being somewhat descent at it.

"Well at least there was a bit of logic behind it, after all as the sergeant said 'a unit which marches together, can think together, and ultimately fight together'" Armin replied, taking the only anywhere near positive remark made by the drill sergeant during the entirety of the afternoon and hoping that he could believe in by getting other to. So far however, the plan wasn't working.

"So, that doesn't mean he has to make us march the whole afternoon!" Eren responded, his gaze still aimed at his food due to his desire to avoid as much back pain as possible.

"What do you think we'll have to do after lunch?" Berthold asked, finally breaking the silence which he had been shrouded in for the majority of the conversation. Truth be told the same question was currently resting on Armin's mind, though unlike Berthold he lacked either the confidence or the naïve curiosity to cause the question to escape from his mind onto his lips. And whilst he did let out a mental sigh of relative relief at the knowledge that there was someone else at the table who had the same concern as him, it did little to answer the question and as such fully extinguish the curiosity within his subconscious. For a few moments there was silence over the four of them as they let their own varying levels of interest in the matter propel them to indeed be interested in an answer, but found that their lack of knowledge or imagination in regards to the subject silence them. Eventually however, it was Reiner who broke the silence.

"Well whatever it is it can't get much worse than this now can it" he stated causing the others at the table, except Armin, to nod in agreement.

"I know that they haven't been here long, but yesterday did you all see the way in which the soldiers that the outsiders sent conducted themselves?" Armin asked, causing all three to look at him again.

"If you mean the way the never can be found without their sawed off muskets over their soldiers or a revolver on their hip then yes I most definitely have" Reiner responded before adding "its most unsettling".

"No I mean the way they march, the way they respond to orders, the way their are given orders have you noticed anything like that?" Armin asked only to be meet with more blank stares.

"What're you getting at Armin?" Eren asked, his tone conveying a desire for Armin to get to his point.

"Well what I mean is, from what I've seen it looks like the way they act and the things we're being taught may have some overlap in the sense that they may be slowly teaching us to function like the soldiers who guard us so thoroughly" Armin explained, causing Reiner to let off a hearty laugh.

"If that is indeed the case then all the mindless marching we did to day might have some greater purpose" Reiner began before adding "but if I were you Armin I wouldn't bother looking at it that way, not yet at least".

"I guess you're right, it's probably just me being over observant" Armin added before turning his attention back to his now cold soup and scooping another spoonful and placing it into his mouth. Little did any of them know the fact that the one member of their group that should've been there was in the midst of inquiring upon a similar subject, and as such closer to putting together the greater picture than they were.

* * *

September 14th, AOT Universe, Eldian Military Training Camp 13, Afternoon

"Alright Private Ackerman what is it?" Cesar asked as he pulled the small canteen from his waste and took a swig of it's cool contents that he'd placed into it earlier that morning. Cesar was many things but able to maintain patience when called away from meal times by things or people he saw as trivial was most certainly not one of them and as such the current meeting he found himself in was nothing short of pouring gasoline on the fire of impatience which had first been stoked due to the general exercises forced upon his personal cadets during the morning.

Private Ackerman, known as "Mikasa" by her friends, had asked him if it was possible for the two of them to meet behind the mess hall before lunch was over and, seeing as how it was obvious to anyone with eyes that Private Ackerman would be good at playing the role of enforced in her unit, Cesar had agreed under the condition that they grab lunch first. Now, fifteen some odd minutes since they had begun their journey through the lunch line they, while more specifically Cesar, had wolfed down their meal before meeting at the pre-decided rendezvous point much to their dissatisfaction.

"How long has your country existed?" Mikasa asked, causing Cesar to dawn a face of surprise.

"What are you talking about?" Cesar asked in response posing what many language teachers would no doubt consider the cardinal sin within the art of conversation, that being the answering of a question with a question.

"How long has your country existed?" Mikasa asked, repeating the question with the same calm tone.

"Well, strictly speaking, the French Republic has existed since roughly 1791" Cesar answered before adding "but the nation of France as whole has existed since its invasion by the Franks in the 5th century, so I guess you could say that it's been around for a long time".

"Then may I ask you a question?" she asked, causing Cesar to raise an eyebrow in interest.

"If you mean in addition to the two that you have already asked, then yes by all means fire away" Cesar answered causing Mikasa's eyes to fall to his feet before he heard part of the question be forced out from between her teeth.

"...were you?" she asked, her question sounding more like a growl than any truly traceable pattern of speech.

"Excuse me?" Cesar asked in response, causing Mikasa to lower her head before repeating the question for a second time.

"If your people have existed for that long, where were you?" she asked, her voice starting to crack. It was easy for Cesar to simply hear the amount of emotion that laced the young girl's voice, it sounded as though it was thick enough to cut with a knife as well as sounding as though it was chocking her with every moment she was deprived of an answer.

"What do you mean?" Cesar asked, wanting to poke and prod into what he perceived to be a mother load of years of pent up frustration dying to be let out.

'What the heck, if I want her unit to avoid massive casualties I'll need to get her as an enforcer a role she can only properly fulfill with a clean conscience' Cesar thought as he donned what he perceived to be the look of an unfazed lawyer to hid the amount of curiosity he actually had towards her statement.

"Why did you wait so long to come and help us?!" Mikasa asked in a tone of voice which bordered on demanding as she raised her eyes to meet his.

"Where were you?" the words once again being thrown at him like some sort of Buddhist mantra before Mikasa began a long tangent of questions.

"Do you know much we've suffered? How much all of humanity has suffered? How many millions have died?" she asked.

"No" Cesar replied giving the most honest answer he could think of, a fact which seemed to drive the young girl's quest for answers on.

"Exactly, so if your people care so much now why didn't you help us in the past? Where were you?" she asked again, not letting the topic go.

"Killing each other" Cesar answered, causing Mikasa to almost instantly be taken back.

"W-What?" she asked, stunned by the answer in general as well as the calmness with which it was delivered.

"You asked what we were doing and I said 'killing each other' specifically just getting over killing 16 million of each other" Cesar replied, his face not having changed.

"Who killed 16 million people?" Mikasa asked, her tone now beginning to lose its firmness.

"We people of earth, France included, but that's nothing roughly 21 years later we started another war that killed over 60 million people; it was caused by the man who masterminded the killing of at least 11 million people and would see the rise of dictators who would kill at least 100 million people" Cesar replied causing Mikasa to, for the first time in a long time, break her façade of emotionlessness.

"Why?" she asked, her mind now racing a million miles and hour, trying to reason why anyone one would mastermind such a slaughter.

"Because they saw the people they were killing as the 'other', and sometimes as 'lesser' beings than themselves" Cesar answered before briefly pausing to continue on.

"The reason we weren't here helping you is because we were busy killing each other to forge and defend the same type of cultural cohesion and understanding that your people have managed to do over the last few centuries; which means that we needed to have a hostile force to unite against, for you it was these so called titans for us it was each other" he finished, causing her to sport a look of shock trying to grasp it all. Trying to grasp whether or not the man in front of her was telling the truth was lying, exaggerating his evidence to create some sort of sympathy, or if he was telling the truth. Part of her wanted to declare him a liar regardless as to whether or not he could provide evidence to back his claim, because to begin to contemplate the reality and magnitude of the slaughter he was describing was to awful to comprehend.

"If you're wondering whether or not I'm telling the truth when your division is given leave to come to my world I'll take time to show you all of the war memorials in France to the victims of these wars and genocides" Cesar said, snapping her out of her thoughts to look at him as he turned around to take his leave.

"But Private I would like you to do something" Cesar began before pausing and continuing "next time you look around at the level of advanced technology my people so effortlessly sport take heed not to forget to the immense amount of human sacrifice and the countless lives lost to achieve it, and then be thankful that we're gifting it to your people without requiring you to pay the same bitter price that we have"

* * *

September 14th, AOT Universe, Eldian Military Training Camp 13, Late Evening

Mina sat on the small bunk, now her temporary bed, that she had been assigned to as she calmly brushed her hair with one of the few items that she'd been able to bring to the training camp. The comb had been one of several gifts from her mother for her 9th birthday and was more or less and unofficial sign that she was an ever year closer to reaching the marital when she would be married, hopefully to a rich man so that she could properly secure her family a comfy future, and the life of relative obscurity that went with it. But that had been before; before the attack on the Shinganshina District had caused a massive population surplus to arise in Wall Rose's population which had resulted in many food shortages, before her father had been drafted with many others to reclaim the Shinganshina District, before he'd never returned and the family had fallen upon hard times. Finally before her mother, driven mad by the strain of having to raise Mina and her siblings by herself, had committed suicide forcing Mina to choose between a life of begging and possible prostitution or that of a soldier in the army.

At first the choice had seemed simple, seeing as how the pay for a soldier was much higher and more reliable than that of a prostitute, intending to avoid seeing combat by joining the Garrison or, if she was unbelievably lucky, the Military Police;but after the few days spent in the registration and transportation she was beginning to habe second thoughts during which she'd become a nameless cog in the merciless machine that was the Eldian military system. It was for that reason that when the strange outsiders who claimed to be their allies and were searching for recruits to form a new unit which they claimed to be critical to the war effort that after quite some pondering she'd elected to volunteer to join it, to possibly make friends but to mainly see to it the end of this horrible war as soon as possible. It was also for this reason that she was somewhat surprised that when she and the other members of her "special" unit had been called away to perform what their commanding officer had described as "basic introductions" to not just him but each other.

 _"Alright listen up" he'd stated as he'd begun to pace up and down the line of volunteers for the newly formed Auxiliary Air Corps._

 _"Our introductions yesterday were insufficient to say the least, so today I want all you to stand up and re-introduce yourselves to you fellow flight and bunk mates as you will be charged with eating, sleeping, and training together until we're deemed fit to be called to the front lines" he finished returning to the middle point of the recruits who had volunteered before pointing to Mina and adding "we'll start with you"._

 _"O-oh, alright, my name is Mina Carolina and I come from the Calaneth District of Wall Rose" she replied as she stood up, causing her to become the focus of all those within the group._

 _"Tell me Student Officer Carolina who waits for you at home?" the man, Captain Cesar Khansari, had sked causing her to pause._

 _"Oh uh, well I have 2 younger siblings waiting for me" she'd replied causing the captain to raise and eyebrow in what was probably interest._

 _"If you have two siblings at home then why have joined the military?" the captain had asked again to which she had answered._

 _"Because this way I can send them money and if what your leader claimed was true, then I can help end this war quickly and end the loss of life that goes with it" she answered causing the captain to put on a smile._

 _"See this" he stated as he pointed to her "student officer Carolina's motivation is commendable along with her idealism and loyalty , and as long as she does not result in her becoming zealot for the cause she intends to fight for". With that Mina sat down as the next cadet in the line stood up in line and began his own introduction, as did the cadet after him, and the Cadet after that. Each riddling off their name, place of origin, and occasionally their reason for joining, each prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to advance the success of humanity, and it's allies, in their war against the titans._

 _"Thomas Wagner, Trost District of Wall Rose"_

 _"Ramon Toset, Orvud District District of Wall Sheena; I was sick of hearing about how we were losing the war and wanted to do something about it"_

 _"Hannah Diamant, Krolva District of Wall Rose"_

 _"Franz Kefka, Utopia District of Wall Rose"_

 _"Achille Cousineau, Karanes District of Wall Rose; I heard that the military would give you a consistent income and I need the money"_

 _"Alexio Barros, Shinganshina District of Wall Maria; my brother died in the defense of Wall Maria, the only way to make his sacrifice count is for us to win this war"_

 _"Friedrich Ferdinand, Trost District of Wall Rose"_

 _"Dario Alesini, Krolva District of Wall Rose"_

 _"Antoni Bartosz, Utopia District of Wall Rose"_

As these memories began to slowly fade from her mind Mina set down her brush and upon hearing the sound of the instrument that had woken up herself and her fellow cadets she did as her instructor had told her at the end of training and blew out the candle on her bedside table before climbing into bed and falling asleep.


	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri** **while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. Please enjoy reading this story.**

 **And Thank you**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

 _'Hi'= Flashback thinking_

 _Hi=Intro_

 ** _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_**

 **Hey guys,**

 **Sorry about the long wait, I've just started classes at the University of Oregon and as such my schedule gotten pretty hectic. I would like to thank all of you guys who elected to stay with me this long and hope that my apology properly shows my feelings on the matter. With that said I hope that all of you enjoy the newest chapter of _And thus the French Foreign Legion Fought Here_.**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Jackie Robinson**

Chapter 8

 _November 13th, AOT Universe, Trost District, Early Afternoon_

The hot early afternoon sun mercilessly beat down upon Lieutenant David Hoffman as he stood watch over his and the other unit sent to guard the small group of UN food distributers who'd elected to set up shop in one of the various squares throughout the district. Hoffman had been a member of the Canadian military for a grand total of 5 years, not including the time spent at the military academy, and had been able to be involved in various relief operations as part of his time in the Middle East, but in the entirety of his five years he'd never seen anything like this. In front of him was a line of people whose level of visible hunger could easily rival, if not surpass, the level seen in the various photos western journalists had taken of civilians in Haiti, Afghanistan, and Iraq. A fact which made him all the more aware of the current situation.

While Hoffman was well aware that his group was only one stationed in a long chain of food distribution points throughout the entirety of Wall Rose, ever since learned that his group was taking its turn to be the "Tail end Charlie" of sorts earlier this morning made him a good deal more cautious than usual. Primarily because of the fact that it meant it would take his group the longest to return to base meaning that they'd have a long wait if they had to call for help. But that wasn't the only reason he was on high alert today.

This was only the second day since the Trost District had been declared safe for UN food distributors and their escorts to enter into the district, with the first district having been cleared a total of ten days ago. To say that the first efforts made by the distributors and their escorts to provide food for the local inhabitants were poorly organized would be a massive exaggeration, in fact considering the information they'd been given they'd prepared rather well.

The only problem is that that information they'd been given was so inaccurate that upon reviewing it after the mission some members of the higher ups had begun to legitimately question whether or not it had somehow been sabotaged by an agent from some unidentified hostile group. In the end said higher ups had instead begun using tactical photographs and actual troop reconnaissance data to avoid sending them into another near war zone like area where citizens swamped the distribution tucks before they could be unloaded and forcing the security groups to fire their weapons in the air to scare them off.

"Lieutenant" a voice said, causing Hoffman to proceed to look to right and see Private Alexander Simpson standing next to him with his assault rifle in his left hand while saluting with his right. Simpson was from the other unit that Hoffman's had been assigned to provide joint security for a UN team that contained medical volunteers from across the United Kingdom and Canada and had been informally assigned as the go between for Hoffman and the British Sergeant who worked to organize the other unit.

"At ease private, what is it?" Hoffman asked, causing Simpson to lower his right hand before taking a much more relaxed stance before continuing on with his message.

"The Sergeant says that the distributors are reaching the tail end of their food supply and that we should start preparing for our departure" Simpson responded, causing Hoffman to subconsciously bite the now thoroughly raw interior of his right cheek.

"Alright Private, tell him that I understand and will begin organizing the removal effort" Hoffman replied earning him a salute from Private Simpson before watching him turn around and run off to deliver his response back to the Sergeant. After pausing briefly to take a swig from his water canteen Hoffman proceeded to move his vehicle to see if he would be able to communicate with other commanders at the site to make sure that the other officers below him knew what the plan for leaving was going forwards so that the lowest number of UN food distributors and soldiers were injured. But really if there was one thing that he had learned from his time here it was that the real victims of this whole thing were the various civilians who had the misfortune to be born into this specific society.

* * *

November 13th, AOT Universe, Trost District, Early Afternoon

To say that Cesar Khansari was having a bad day would be a fair, although painfully dull, statement which might cause the one saying it to receive an irritated look from the man who was the subject of the statement. Of course this look of irritation would not be **entirely** your fault but more so the culmination of several recent announcements, statements, and orders that Cesar had recently had delivered to him from his higher ranking officers; but still as unfair as it was you'd probably find yourself being the subject to the venting of all of his frustrations. But then again that's life.

In the case of Cesar, his life had almost instantly been made a good deal more difficult when he began learning of the fact that due to a serge in interest from many American based news outlets reporters from news stations within that country would be arriving shortly to begin reporting on the events that transpired there and the daily lives of those involved. However, there was one problem with this idea; that being that nothing really news worthy had occurred since training had begun meaning that reporters aimed at gaining "real life" stories would possibly be pushed into taking a more sensational angle. An angle which seldom ever resulted in anything good happening for those who were unfortunate enough to be the subject of that style of journalism.

As much as Cesar desired to not have this be in his peripheral mindset right now, the fact that he'd been formally told about it meant two things. First that it was **going** to happen no two ways about it and second that he was **expected** to do everything in his power to make it run as smoothly & as successfully as possible regardless of how he personally felt about it. Fortunately, Cesar was not forced to continue battling with these thoughts in his head as he was pulled out from them only a few seconds after he began to comprehend the immense head ache that awaited him and his fellow instructors in the very near future.

"Sir" a rather small and rather meek sounding voice called causing Cesar to turn his head in the direction the sound came from allowing him to come face to face with one Cadet Mina Carolina. Cadet Carolina, or "Mina" as she was called by some of the more informal soldiers that she worked with, had proven to be an ideal choice for the unit intermediary when it came to the dissemination of orders and collecting of training exercise results due to the fact that she was not too opinionated and seemed to be naturally submissive to her superiors. And while she proved to be awful and causing any of these specific orders to actually be done, there were plenty of others in the unit who could function as enforcers to make up for all of her weaknesses in that area.

"What is it Cadet?" Cesar asked, attempting to make his irritated attitude translate into a bored tone to prevent the Cadet from believing she was to next on Cesar's every growing list of people who needed a good verbal kick in the pants. For all of her usefulness as a runner the Cadet had one great flaw and that was whenever she was spoken to with any form of gusto, be it rightly or wrongly, she had a minute tendency to emotionally play the role of a scared turtle and effectively shut down. It was a habit that Cesar would need Joseph to kindly coach out of her, before it got her killed.

"Lieutenant Taube gave me orders to tell you that he feels that the other cadets and I are sufficient enough for a review of the training exercise" she reported, causing Cesar to raise an subconsciously his left eyebrow. If there was one thing that Cesar had learned since he and his second in command had begun training these new cadets was that while Joseph was an efficient coach when it came to instruction he help a specific weakness when it came to forcing them to repeat the drills until they were ground into their subconscious. This was partially understandable, since both of he and Cesar had been forced to undergo the exact same training in order from them to make it into the air force they both knew how unpleasant each drill was; however, this marked a difference between him and Joseph.

He could isolate his personal feelings on the drills, and personal experiences, he knew that the reason they were in use was because of how effective they were when it came to preparing a cadet for the toughest part of training. The flying. But this was neither the time nor the place to publicly make a scene about this problem, he would have to talk to Joseph about that later if he desired to politely question his friend's judgement without humiliating him in front of the cadets they were supposed to lead.

"Alright, tell the others to be at ease and in fifteen minutes we'll begin the next drill" Cesar replied causing Cadet Carolina to give a salute before running off to pass the news down the unit's grapevine of information. Watching as the small group of cadets seemed to either collapse out of what seemed to be exhaustion or taking some position trying to allow for the maximum amount of oxygen into their lungs Cesar began to make his way towards his friend to begin the little chat he knew was inevitable. Cesar arrived just in time to see Joseph lighting a cigarette, no doubt trying to relax himself during what little time he had, and preparing to put it his lips.

"I thought you said you were never going to touch one of those this?" Cesar asked, causing Joseph to suddenly drop the cigarette out of surprise before turning around to face him.

"Oh it's just you sir, for a second their I thought you sounded like my mother" Joseph answered as he proceeded to step on the cigarette in question before grinding it into the dust.

"Well for God's sake one of has to" Cesar replied before returning to the matter at hand "anyway like I said, I thought you vowed to never touch a cig". Reaching into his pocket Joseph proceeded to pull out a pack of cigarettes and take out another one before lighting it and returning to the previous act he'd been doing.

"I did" Joseph began before pausing briefly and then adding "but, things just happened". If there had been one thing that Cesar had learned from the older members of the air force during his brief time in the service it was that when a person mentions having "things" happen to them it was best to give them the benefit of the doubt unless you knew it was hurting someone.

"Well it'd be best if you didn't do it around the cadets or too many cadets, as you know smoking is contagious" Cesar added causing Joseph to pull the cigarette from his mouth.

"Come one you must've come here to do something other than chastise me over my smoking" Joseph responded.

"You're right" Cesar responded "my main focus was going to be on how convinced you are that these cadets are ready to move onto their next drill". Pausing briefly Joseph proceeded to take one last drag on his cigarette before dropping it to the ground and once again grinding it into the dust, this time without any sort of up beat comment.

"What's that supposed to mean sir?" he asked in a tone, that while not disrespectful, was still filled with a good deal of skepticism.

"I mean that on no less than three occasions you deemed the cadets ready to move onto the next drill after a good break, but when I reviewed them after said break they failed to meet the standards you said that they could fulfill" Cesar answered, trying his best to keep his voice down sot hat they couldn't be overheard.

"With due respect sir, could it not possibly be that by the time you review them they're so weary from reach or even surpassing the standard that they cannot replicate it" Joseph responded, causing Cesar to blink unfazed in response.

"You go too easy on them" Cesar stated.

"Only because you're too rough with them" Joseph countered, causing Cesar to cross his arms in response.

"How so?" Cesar asked, still hoping that this could serve as what some people elected to deem a "teachable moment" for the too of them. Or at least for Joseph.

"You drill them until they drop from exhaustion" Joseph began causing Cesar to slowly begin to raise his finger in response only to be shut down half way through doing so.

"An act which leaves them vulnerable to injuries which will slow down our progress, and causes you to be hated by them".

"Better to be hated and have them still alive, then to be loved and have to watch them die" Cesar shot back. For some reason he felt the need to look over his shoulder and as he did so, he saw that some of the cadets were looking at him and Joseph. A sign that he was beginning to lose his composure.

"How about this" Joseph suggested, causing Cesar to look his way.

"We agree to disagree; you can drill them as you see fit when your in charge, and I'll drill them as I see fit when I'm in charge" Hearing this Cesar could only begin to rub his temple in immense frustration. As innocent as it sounded this was by no means a fair deal since Joseph and the rest of the staff did the majority of day to day instruction whole Cesar only made brief cameos during inspections. But there was no other viable option available, so it would have to do.

"You're lucky you're not under a different officer, or else you'd be replaced" Cesar muttered under his breath, reminding Joseph of the opinions that had surrounded him upon graduating from the academy.

"Well someone has to remind you to keep in touch with your humanity" Joseph, cheerily replied.

"And someone needs to remind you to be weary of yours" Cesar countered, finally removing his hands from his temple,

"Is that all?" Joseph asked checking his watch, indicating that the time set aside for their little chat was running out.

"No, actually" Cesar responded before pulling out the piece of paper on which the dispatch he'd received was printed.

"I got an order from headquarters" he continued, unfolding it and handing it to Joseph.

"Some American journalists will be paying us a visit in a few days, which means that this little propaganda piece of a legion will no doubt be seeing combat before the end of our one year time table"

"But how? There's still so much we need to do" Joseph asked, his eyes rapidly reading the letter.

"I know, and unless we want them to play some narrative about our ineptness we'll need to begin the rest of recruiting" Cesar replied.

"You mean the mechanics, engineers, medics, new officers, and translators?" Joseph asked, his eyes rising from the letter as he handed it back to Cesar.

"Yes, all of it" Cesar replied, taking the letter and beginning to refold it.

"But how?" Joseph asked his superior as he calmly placed the dispatch back in his coat pocket.

"Search the rest of the legion for anyone with skills or interests surrounding the areas of mechanics, medicine, or language and report them to the head of the training program; hopefully we can at least begin the process of training them before the journalists get here" Cesar answered before turning around and adding.

"By the way Joseph, not a word of this to the cadets, if they ask to many questions they may begin to get increasingly unpleasant answers" with that he made his was towards his previous sport of observation. Hoping to form a better strategy for what to do in the days to come.

* * *

 **French Ministry of Defense, Paris, France November 13th 7:04 pm**

The bright lights in the main office of the chief military officer for the French Ministry of Defense shone down upon one General Francois Lecointre as he looked over a recently received request for what must have been no less than the 100th time. The request had arrived earlier in the day and was about American journalists desiring to first known if the conflict zone was safe for people of their profession to enter and second whether or not they would be allowed to do so and, truth be told, the general had at first desired to lie to them and answer no to both questions.

Only there had been one problem with that strategy, he was not dealing with French citizens who trusted the decisions of their government due to a long history of policy makers being in the loop with their constituents but Americans whose history and political stances were completely different. Essentially while answering no would be seen as justified by the majority of French journalist to American journalists it was the sign of a guilty conscience built upon the hiding of a venomous and possibly damaging secret.

As such Lecointre had instead elected to hold off on a response until he could first alert the men on the group to the situation, giving them a little bit of a head's up so that that they could better warn their troops of the incoming fire storm. But there was also another reason. Like the majority of Frenchmen involved in global politics Lecointre knew one seemingly undeniable truth; that American journalists often lead to American attention, which in turn often lead to American intervention. It was one of the many beauties, and curses, of a democratic system; that the citizens could have a massive sway in the decisions of their policy makers at any given moment. But for France, a sudden rise in American interest, coupled with eventual intervention, in the conflict might put at risk all of the decisions made by the president in the recent years.

I was no secret that China and Russia were looking to re-emerge as the dominant superpowers in the world, a reality which left many Western European nations with only three options. Band together and resist as one, turn to the United States for help, or go off and take their chances on their own. For most the third was borderline suicide and the second seemed a good deal less likely with the American foreign relations now becoming more pseudo-isolationist, leaving the first choice as the only one and forcing another question to arise. Who would lead this new European Union? It was obvious that Merkel's time in the sun was running out due to her policies which left Germany as a sort of doormat for the West, meaning someone new needed to replace her.

Now, due to the recent diplomatic decisions made by the Macron administration, that person looked to be France and it's new diplomatic empire, an empire which could only exist if the U.S didn't intervene. However, if American journalists did go to the combat zone they may push a narrative of European negligence and convince American citizens to force the hand of U.S policy makers to intervene in the conflict.

So once again one was left with a choice. Deny the journalists and have them write editorials questioning the conflict's morality, causing the U.S to be force it's way in for "humanitarian" purposes? Or let them in and have them still write editorials that cause the American public to bully their policy makers into intervening in the conflict. In other words the situation was one of the better examples of being between a rock and a hard place.

In the end however, the real question was how much would the U.S want to get involved in this? A question which Lecointre had been toying with for the past few hours. And in the end he had reached his current conclusion, that such a question was entirely up to the Americans to make, a reality which made his next action all the more souring. Pulling out a pen Lecointre proceeded to sign the ready made statement that had been typed out by his secretary so many hours before and placed it in the outgoing section of his desk's mail box. Pressing the button for the night time secretary to come in Lecointre proceeded to dawn his jacket and hat before making his way out of the office.

"Good evening General Lecointre" one of the guard's said as Lecointre passed him, flashing a salute as he did so. Returning the salute in response Lecointre proceeded to get in his governmentally provided vehicle before driving off into the night. The uncertainty of the decision he just made still present on his mind.


	10. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri** **while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. Please enjoy reading this story.**

 **And Thank you**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

 _'Hi'= Flashback thinking_

 _Hi=Intro_

 ** _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_**

 **Hey guys,**

 **First I would like to say Happy New Years to all of you and that I hope that all of you have had the most Merry of Christmases. Second I would like to once again apologize for the wait as my schedule was thoroughly derailed by the Christmas season and my need to work during it, as such I hope that you will accept this chapter which is slightly longer than usual. I would also like to let you know that I will try to get a n chapter up sometime before the end of February and that it will be the last one in which the unit will be training, so it might take even longer than this one given the amount of things that I will need to put in it. With that I hope that you can sit back, relax, and enjoy this newest of installments of _And Thus the French Foreign Legion Fought Here_.**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Jackie Robinson**

Chapter 9

November 23rd, AOT Universe, Eldian Military Training Camp 13

"All right, lasts top everybody off" a gruff voice shouted, causing one Madeline Fichte to be jolted awake by the vehicle's sudden and forceful stop. The vehicle in question was an old French TRM 10000 and Madeline had been given the distinct displeasure of having to ride in it for last 3 or more hours over the rough terrain that coated the land side of this newly discovered world. When Madeline had originally been assigned to cover the story about the current Coalition and the opening of its attempts to "liberate" a newly discovered world filled with giants, she'd personally felt cheated for two reasons. The first was that while the initial appearance of the giant like creatures in rural France had been by all means shocking, causing a surge in the amount of time CNN allotted to the coverage of the even, the story had significantly cooled off by now; as more and more Americans had turned their attention towards the political turmoil in their nation's capitol, making their shift in interest clear with a drop in viewership numbers any time the story was on.

However, there was a second and more pressing fact and that was when she'd first heard that she, along with several others, were going to be sent to this theatre she naturally assumed that the entirety of the team would all be assigned to areas either close to the combat or command zones controlled by the Coalition. Instead she'd learned that the group was to be divided into three groups of two and each group sent to a different part of the Coalition's camp, with Madeline and her camera assistant being assigned to cover the story of a small integration unit of locals who were being given instruction via officers assigned to them from the French Foreign Legion. While some people might claim that this story, the creating of military self-sufficiency by the French within their allies and introducing of them to Western culture, it did little to quell the fact that she felt she'd solely been included on the project for pure tokenism.

"Brandon, we're here" Madeline firmly declared as she opened the small bag that she'd brought, making sure that all of the materials she'd packed were still there. Finding that her small phone camera, numerous notepads, and pens were all there she proceeded to grab the duffle bag she'd packed before returning her gaze to her partner; only to find that he was somehow still asleep.

"Brandon, wake up" she stated firmly before proceeding to roughly elbow the poor cameraman in the ribs causing him to roughly gasp before entering into a coughing fit.

"Dammit Madeline, what was that for?" Brandon asked, after he finally managed to get control of his breathing.

"You wouldn't wake up, and the last thing I'd like to do is have to go through that 3 hour nightmare again because you missed the last call" Madeline answered before slinging her back pack over her shoulder and picking up both her and Brandon's personal duffle bags. Letting out a tired, and no doubt slightly frustrated sigh, Brandon proceeded to pick up the large camera that he'd been carrying for roughly the past year of his life and followed Madeline towards the rear entrance of the truck; pausing only to hand her the camera in order to avoid damaging it to the enormous step down.

The scene that greeted the two of them was something that looked to be from an old news report from the Gulf War. The camp was rather barren, with the only thing that was able to catch Madeline's eye being the various wooden huts arranged in neat columns, with each column being placed helter skelter through out the base and large guard posts at each edge of the camp. It was as she made these observations that Madeline was able to get a better look at the huddled of fellow journalists who'd also made the journey there with them and the soldiers who'd been assigned to them. A task previously made difficult due to the lack light in the back of the truck and the fact that the road had been too bumpy for her flashlight to be of any use when she'd turned it on. From the looks of it there were reporters from all the major global networks there the BBC, the CBC, and France 24; no doubt all replacement crews seeing as how these stations had begun covering the goings on of the conflict live long before CNN had thought of the idea. In addition to this they all seemed to be decked out with amounts of recording and interview equipment that gave the allure that they were about to begin filming on a movie location rather than cover a major news story; a fact which made Madeline feel all the more subconscious of the fact she only sported pens, paper, and an assistant with a cheap camera.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Camp 13" A loud, and heavily accented voice called causing her to look and see the French Military Police Officer who was standing across from her.

"My name is Ferdinand Capet, I am the head security officer of the base and the bases' third highest ranking officer; before my men escort you to your lodgings I would like to go over the special rules of this base" the Corps General continued causing Madeline to internally sweat drop.

'Great, nothing better than rules that will restrict our jobs and get us fired because we fail to meet the editor's quota of marketing shorts' she thought as the General began to pace back and forth across the area in front of the reporters.

"First, let me begin by saying that you are all hereby under the Jurisdiction of the French Military and by extension the French government, which means that you are required to comply with these rules like any other soldier"

"You are to observe the 10pm curfew, or face extensive question as to your activities after said curfew and reasons for breaking it, break this rule too many times and I will have you on the first supply truck back home"

"You are to only speak with the instructors or soldiers during meal times, recreational times, chapel times, and the hours leading up to bed checks; speaking to them or approaching them while they drill is strictly forbidden for your own safety"

"All film and photographs of this base will be strictly examined to make sure that they do not breach security"

"And finally, you are all to stay away from any restricted or guarded zones unless you desire to be prosecuted for violating the security of a French military base; with that I will allow my men to escort you to your quarters and feel free to amuse yourselves as you wish without violating any of these guidelines" with that the small armed attaché of soldiers began to move, prompting the rest of the reporters to do so as well. As they did so, Madeline but couldn't help but glace over her shoulder and catch a brief sight of the a short column of soldiers marching in an orderly fashion off to do what was most likely some menial task.

'Well, maybe If I play this right I can get to do something more important later' she thought to herself, not knowing how incredibly wrong the internal statement she'd just made was going to be.

* * *

December 3rd, AOT Universe, Plain somewhere in the Trost District

The warm afternoon sun shone down upon the large open plain of Trost as a small, red, propeller plane calmly made its way throughout the large blue sky. If any of the district's rural occupants who had, for the most part, grown accustomed to the sights of the large grey looking birds that would pass loudly overhead with growing frequency they might've assumed this plane was on a glorified joy ride. And in fact their reasons for doing so would be entirely justified as the plane was slow, carried few external weapons, and lacked any counteractive measures to projectiles from the ground. In other words, with the exception of a small handgun assigned to each of the pilots which was strategically placed underneath their seats, anyone who was assigned to fly the plane would be entirely helpless; and yet this assumption was still wrong.

For in the small cockpit of this small plane was one of the two experienced officers assigned to the training, and for a short period leading of, the pilots that would form the airwing of the newly composed Eldian Auxiliary Air Force. Sitting rather stiffly in the instructor's chair of the air craft Cesar couldn't help but let out a fatigued sigh as he casually glance up from the navigational map and out of the side of the cockpit to the extensive landscape below. It had been a long day for Cesar as he and his assistant had been up since 6am administering supervised navigational test flights of their new recruits, alternating with each participant so that each might be allowed time to rest, and even though he knew that after this he'd get a short rest the long schedule ahead of him gave him a headache. The point of the test was to see which of their cadets were suitable to receive their final certifications required to become a pilot and which would instead be confined to other important areas such as the groundcrew and air controllers.

"Uh sir" a timid voice called causing Cesar to shale from his staring out of the side of the cockpit.

"What is it?" Cesar asked, his eyes returning to chart, possibly considering that it might be possible that he missed his next point of instruction.

"Something's wrong with the engine" the voice stated causing Cesar to once again peak out the window, this time casting his gaze forwards to the front of the plane instead of to the side, and saw small traces of smoke coming from the plane's engine. Propeller planes often smoked, it was a legacy of the limited technology that could be found in this particular style of combustion engine, Cesar and Joseph had taken care to tell this all of the cadets; but as he continued his observation the smoke was starting to get worse. Indicating that there was something wrong with the engine related to the fuel mixture in the engine, the engine's temperature, the pressure in the tubes, or something related to the amount of oxygen getting in. Regardless as to what the specific cause was, it wasn't good.

"How's the temperature gauge looking?" Cesar asked, as question which earned him a brief pause of silence before receiving a definite answer.

"Not good" came the reply, causing Cesar to curse under his breath and begin looking out of the cockpit for a open plain to land the plane. After briefly searching, switching back and forth between the exterior of the cockpit and the map before finally finding a place.

"Cadet Braus, look to the land the aircraft at the plain coming up at your two o'clock" Cesar calmly instructed, pretending as though he was not by any means concerned by the fact that the amount of smoke coming from the ending had now change from slight whips to nearly full on belching.

"Roger that sir" Sasha, the cadet in question, replied before gently turning the air craft in response to her reply. Glancing at his watch Cesar couldn't help but mutter some more curses towards the idiots at high command who had elected to construct such a tight training time table, as he began to perform some mental calculations. Luckily for them Cesar had elected to set out on this practice flight the moment when Joseph had returned instead of use the time to get some badly needed rest, making it so that they now had time to spare without needing to worry about causing concerns back at the base. Cesar didn't have time to think long, as he was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of Sasha adjusting the flaps into their landing position to air in the stabilization of the air craft.

"Landing gear down" Sasha stated before the sound of the tiny plane's landing gear coming down.

"Touching down" she added, seconds before Cesar felt the whole plane shudder as it made contact with the unpaved earth, causing the necessary air brakes to be applied and the plane to slow before coming to a complete stop, allowing Sasha to kill the engine. Reaching up from his seat Cesar proceeded to grab to two handles of the cockpit canopy and use them to pull said canopy back so that he could be able to climb out of the cramped cockpit and slide down the wing before making his way towards the engine. Reaching the engine Cesar was confronted by the distinct sight of extensive scorch marks on the exterior of the area surrounding the engine, telling the tale of an engine that was luckily only overheated. As such problems could be fixed with letting the engine rest.

"Braus, can you please get the repair kit from my seat?" Cesar asked as he ran his gloved right hand across the exterior of the front of the plane.

"What?" Sasha asked, causing Cesar to turn towards her and notice that she had disconnected her oxygen mask, another part of the training program as it was best to educate the pilots on how to use them before they found themselves at heights too high for any errors to be anything less than fatal. Realizing that he had not allowed her the same act of curtesy Cesar proceeded to unclip his own before repeating his message and this time earning a confirmative salute. To say that the young Braus had been one of the more unexpected volunteers to manifest when Joseph had put out a call for more volunteers would be an understatement, for never in a million years would Cesar have though that the young woman had the dedication to make it this far into the program.

Quirky, optimistic, and slightly spastic when Cesar had seen her on the preliminary mustard parade for the new recruits he'd personally given her a few days to a week at most before she'd go limping back to the infantry unit she'd came from with her tail between her legs. After all, due to a combination of the reduced training schedule he and his subordinate were being forced to work on along with their limited staff & resources he had no room for any perpetuators of any form of tomfoolery or mischief. Needless to say he'd been proven wrong. For all her airs of for being well...an air head; Sasha had proven to be one of the most observant, if slightly absent minded, cadets he'd had register to train with the unit.

"Sir, we've got visitors" Sasha stated, causing Cesar to look up and see two small figures making their way towards him.

'Crap, locals' Cesar thought, causing him to instinctually reclip his oxygen mask on to prevent the individuals in question from getting a good look at his face. One of the things which had come up almost immediately when he and Joseph had received instructions on the limitations surrounding their activities was that they were to limit any sort of social interactions with the locals. It was no secret that the locals here had a minute tendency to spread rumors via their rumor mill at a speed that would make wildfire look slow, rumors that often lead to panic. As such it was only natural that the best way to prevent said panic was to control, i.e strangle, any rumors that began to come into existence; rumors that an unintended and unplanned meeting between Coalition soldiers and the local populace might have.

"Sasha, take care of them while I fix the plane" Cesar ordered as he pulled the front of his oxygen mask down enough so that he could be heard better, but not enough so that it would take a good deal of effort to reclip it to the head gear. Hearing the sound of metal jingling, Cesar looked over his shoulder to see Sasha briefly flash him a salute before turning towards the two individuals who were close enough to the point where he could tell that they were two young boys before beginning to unscrew the bolts the secured the paneling around the engine.

'It's time to perform some maintenance' Cesar thought, silently waiting for the day that his cadets could do this on the job maintenance work by themselves without his help or supervision.

* * *

December 3rd, AOT Universe, Plain somewhere in the Trost District

While Cesar began the process of checking the various parts of the engine to pin point the exact problem and possibly hope to fix it, even if it was only in a limited capacity, Sasha was beginning to confront the two individuals. The two individuals were, as she'd previously thought, were two young boys who looked to be between the ages of 8 and 13. Both were clothed in the simply attire that was the staple of the lower, especially rural peasant, classes that resided in Eldian society with faces that looked to be caked in a mixture of sweat and dust. Truth be told of all the entirety of their attire it was the looks on their young, dirty, weary faces that caused Sasha to feel her heart to silently cry tears of blood; it reminded her too much of the rough childhood she'd been raised in under he father's it wasn't as if it was entirely her father's fault, far from it, in fact it had been Sasha's father who had been able to raise her by himself and provide for her all of the basic necessities of life such as a roof over her head, food, water, and warmth. A fact which sadly set her up to have a higher standard of living than most of the children who were her age.

"Hello, misses lady" a youthful voice called out, causing Sasha to be snapped from her musing and return her attention back towards the two individuals who were now standing almost directly in front of her. She could now see that, contrary to her original assumption, the two were indeed armed for their own self defense; with the older of the two sporting a short sickle in his right hand. While many of the soldiers who'd come from the other world to help them, including her own commanding officers, might find it to be concerning that they'd sport such a weapon. However, given the amount of food shortages that had followed the fall of Shinganshina district and subsequent famine and the fact that it had lead to the forming of bandits who raided farms these weapons of self-defense were nothing short of necessary now a days.

"Are you okay?" the younger of the two boys asked, causing Sasha to offer a candid smile in response.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Sasha replied, as she proceeded to place her hands on her hips.

"Because you looked like you were crying" the young boy responded, his more rural accent thickly lacing not just his speech but also his mannerisms.

"Oh, it's nothing I've just had to do a lot of work" Sasha answered, not noticing that her own long guarded accent was starting to seep out like tea into water.

"What's your name?" the younger of the two boys asked, pulling Sasha's attention back towards him.

"Sasha. What's yours'?" Sasha answered, causing the younger of the two boys to respond by giving a toothy grin before answering.

"I'm Josef and he's my older brother Nikolas" hearing the sound of his name being called Nikolas proceeded to nod his head, the sickle in his hand looking a good deal more relaxed than it was when the two had originally presented themselves before her.

"Who's that?" Josef asked, causing Sasha to turn around and look to see that he was pointing at Cesar.

"Oh he's a colleague of mind, he'd helping me to fix the plane"

"What's a 'plane'?" Josef asked causing Sasha to look towards the plane and gesturing with her left hand.

"That's a plane" Sasha answered, causing Josef's face to light up light a light bulb before stating.

"So that what you call those silver birds" to which Sasha nodded. It was because of this enlightening conversation that Sasha had failed to notice, or at least pay any attention to, the fact that Nikolas has been standing in relatively studious silence; carefully examining her.

"You talk like us" Nikolas stated in a matter of fact tone, breaking his silence and causing Sasha to briefly stiffen up at the acknowledgement of her accent.

"Does that mean you were a farmer too?" Josef asked, causing Sasha to almost instinctually nod in response rather than give a verbal answer.

"So does that mean that we can do what you're doing?" Josef asked, causing Sasha to briefly pause before realizing the possibilities that could arise from the conversation.

"Yes, I guess it-" she began only to be interrupted by a loud, angry shout.

"Braus, you idiot!" was the only warning she received before receiving a firm smack on the back of the head, causing her to spin around almost instantaneously.

"What's the problem sir?" Sasha asked, in a now thoroughly curtailed voice.

"Did you check the coolant level on your aircraft after returning from our practice flight yesterday evening?" Cesar nearly shouted, causing Sasha to pause briefly as she entered into deep thought.

"I...don't...think-" she began, only to once again be cut off by Cesar.

"Of course you didn't think, the current level is well below what is acceptable let alone safe" Cesar thundered, his voice moving more and more from an orderly one to one of rage as he said each word.

"Why didn't you 'think' it was prudent to check it" he asked, using air quotes upon stating 'think'.

"Well it was nearly dinner time, so I thought that I could just do it after I ate" she answered.

"But you didn't!" Cesar shot back, causing Sasha to simply shrug her shoulders and ask.

"Why does it matter, we solved the problem anyways right?" Personally she couldn't have chosen a worse question to pose as Cesar looked as though, if the two of them were in private, he would be on the brink of strangling her.

" **WHY DOES IT MATTER? IT MATTERS BECAUSE THE OVERHEATING ENGINE COMBINED WITH THE LACK OF COOLING FLUID HAS CAUSED THE TWO OF US HAVE BEEN SITTING ON A GLORIFIED BOMB FOR THE PAST HALF OF AN HOUR! THAT'S WHY!** **"** Cesar shouted back, before trying to calm himself before looking at the two boys.

"Who are these two anyway?" he asked, looking at the wide eyed and open mouthed faces of the two boys in front of him. Unbeknownst to Cesar his recent outburst, and wild gesticulations, had caused the mask which had been covering the majority of his face to become unbuckled, exposing his dark brown face to the two boys in front of him.

"Hello, what's the matter with you two?" Cesar asked before gently grabbing the two boys and firmly shaking them via their shoulders, causing them to be removed from their gaze.

"How'd your skin get so dark?" Josef asked, causing Cesar to look down and realize that his mask was no longer connected and immediately began fiddling with it.

"With all do respect, there's no point sir, they've already seen you" Sasha said, causing Cesar to give her an annoyed look.

"You better pray no one finds out about this Braus" Cesar growled out before returning his gaze to the boys and adding.

"I was born with it, my father's from a particularly sunny part of the world" Cesar responded, crossing his arms as.

"Wow, that's so cool" Josef declared, with eyes that seemed star struck.

"Well yes, I guess...I guess it is" Cesar stated, eyes looking off towards the left in an attempt to not seem as interested in the complimentary remark as he really was. Seeing that her superior was beginning to flounder in which might his own ego Sasha elected to take action.

"What do you need sir?" she asked, causing Cesar to snapped from his gaze.

"Hmm...what...oh yes, there's a small canister of a coolant-water mixture, should be enough to get us back home" Cesar answered, causing Sasha to walk over towards where the repair kit was before going towards the rear of the plane to remove the necessary panels to find the canister.

"So how do you fly one of these things?" Nikolas asked, causing Cesar to immediately place his hands behind his back.

"Sorry I can't tell you, it's a vital secret" Cesar answered as he placed a finger over his lips and pausing briefly before adding as Sasha passed him.

"But if you're still interested in finding out in a few years time, then you can join the air corps and find out"

"Do you promise to wait until then?" Cesar asked, causing the two brothers to each give a nod in affirmation.

"Sir, the canister's been emptied" Sasha stated, causing Cesar to glance over his shoulder.

"Good" Cesar answered before returning his gaze to the boys and adding.

"Well I'm sorry but the two of us will have to go, if you two manage to be good maybe one day this knucklehead here will be your instructor" Cesar stated, before gesturing to Sasha and making his way to the plane and climbing up on the wing and into his section of the cockpit with Sasha following closely behind; after which he closed the cockpit canopy. Flipping the required switches Cesar proceeded to prime the engine before his student in the front seat proceeded to rev it up, causing the propeller to begin spinning and allowing it to slowly begun to edge forwards. Casting one last glance towards the boy Cesar proceeded to raise his right hind and flash the two of them a salute, to which the two saluted back, before reattaching his mask and returning his eyes frontwards.

'It's children like them that will form the backbone of the new society that may indeed arise here' Cesar thought as the plane gradually gained speed before gradually taking off into the sky.


	11. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri** **while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. Please enjoy reading this story.**

 **And Thank you**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

 _'Hi'= Flashback thinking_

 _Hi=Intro_

 ** _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Jackie Robinson**

Chapter 9

February 28th, AOT Universe, Eldian Military Training Camp 13

For many the month of February is one which carries a mix of emotions ranging from the bitterness of winter, to the love of Valentines day, to the hope of a much warmer & more inviting spring. It's for this reason that the month of February has been blessed with so many different, and often conflicting titles throughout its existence as the second month in our twelve month calendar

. The younger brother of January, the shortest month of the year, the month of love, and the month which proceeds spring being but a few of them; but regardless a firm fact which is known is that with few exceptions the end of the month of February is universally the beginning of the end of winter's tyranny. Unfortunately, for the fighting soldiers of the 104th Cadet volunteer infantry Corps, also known as the 1st Eldian Legion, and all those who'd been tasked with training them the month of February was not destined to be so kind. Starting from the beginning of December, with the exception of only a few days, the Legion and the instructors training it were exposed to the full might of the region's winter weather patters.

This brutal winter had begun with a snow storm that buried the tiny training camp in several feet of snow on its first night and sadly had continued to do so non-stop for the rest of the week. The result was that, unsurprisingly, most of the military training exercises which had been planned ahead of time, were now instead going to be altered to fit the weather patters; a fact that ultimately meant that the instructors had begun to enter into the darker part of their regimens. That being, the sections dedicated to teaching their students how to survive alone if ever they found themselves in a sticky situation. However, the only thing more surprising than the intensity of winter season was how incredibly perfect the camp had proven to be as a winter training ground. While it was common knowledge to many of the officers that the camp was able to have a wide variety of uses its level of dexterity was not exactly known about the effect winter would have on it.

As such in the nearly three months that had passed since the first snowflakes had begun to fall many of these aforementioned exercises had taken place. It was during one of these exercises that Cesar Tehrani found himself sitting in a small hut at one of the many rendezvous points that littered the pre-purposed training route. Looking down at a small map Cesar couldn't help but take a sip from the small mug of coffee which was placed next to the map before returning his gaze up towards one of the hut's windows.

While he had initially he had opposed the plan for his previously separate unit to merge with the infantry units for this winter training section, the sight of the violent storm in front of him demonstrated the fact that it was possible that the move wasn't so bad after all. Still, there was a good deal of room left for improvement and with that in mind he couldn't help but let his gaze fall upon the letter that sat on his desk. A dispatch sent to every single one of the training commanders throughout the entirety of the unit, the letter had been stamped with the statement "Urgent! Open at the soonest possible moment and deep down Cesar couldn't help but know that the statement was indeed true. However, despite this he personally couldn't find the necessary gumption to go ahead and open the letter. Especially with his trainees stuck in the current winter situation trudging through the snow.

Taking one last glance towards the window, and accepting that glances like it would do nothing to speed up the unit's arrival, he proceeded to sit down and us his finger to tear open the top of envelope before withdrawing the letter and beginning to read.

* * *

Deep in the depths of the depressing, dark forest that group of merged training units in question could be seen slowly trudging through the snow. The greatest indication of their gradual and heavily hampered movement being the distinct crunching sound of their boots moving across the ice. However, even if the unit had been cheerfully singing one of the many marching songs that had been drilled into them in order to help them keep step when on parade the chances of you being able to hear them would no doubt be rather slim. At least when one added in the fact that you'd have to try to distinguish the sound of their voices from that of the harsh, loud, angry wind as it whipped its way through the trees of the forest.

The tiny group in question was comprised of roughly 10 people, all of whom were wrapped in a several thick layers of brown clothing and coats that had been given to them curtesy of the Russian Army. If this were a scene from a film it would no doubt be from one of the many European military dramas about the harsh realities of military combat on the Eastern Front during the Second World War, and while the type of suffering might be similar to the soldiers in that theater the level was in some ways worse. It was this suffering, particularly the brutal nature of the cold, that caused one of the group's members, Franz Kefka, to lower the cloth which covered the front his mouth and nose so that he could relieve his nasal from the snot dripping from his nostrils.

'It's so annoying that inspire of the fact it's snowing I still have to blow my nose' Franz thought to himself as he wiped his face before returning the cloth to its previous place as he felt his nose beginning to go numb. Like most of the soldiers who'd joined his unit Franz did not in pursuit of revenge or glory, but rather a stable source of income to avoid being sucked down into the dregs of destitution and it was this matter of fact attitude that had propelled him to join the unit's flying corps when the opportunity was offered. If he was to face certain death whilst in the Survey Corps he might as well be useful, right?

"Hey Franz, I know you're our group's Tail End Charlie, but would you mind trying to keep up?" A loud, and more than slightly irritated voice called causing Franz to turn and find himself facing in the direction of a blond haired, blue eyed, girl.

"Sorry Annie, I was just thinking" Franz answered causing another one of his group with a feminine voice to chime in.

"If you think as slow as you walk then you'll be dead before you learn anything" which earned her a gentle shove from the figure next to her and a frown from Franz.

"Come on Ymir, that's not very nice" the other girl said in soft yet scolding tone indicative of more so how Ymir should have felt rather than how she did.

"Come on Christa, it's just a little fun" Ymir responded in her usual condescending manner that caused one of the other members of the group to pause and turn towards her.

"Oh, then I guess the drill sergeant was just 'having a little fun' when he made you do those 100 pushups every morning for 8 days in a row?" the boy asked, causing the look on Ymir's face to change from condescending to angry.

"You better shut you damn mouth Jean!" she thundered, earning a cheeky chuckle from one of the others and adding.

"That goes for you two Eren!" In all honesty it couldn't have been more than three seconds from the end of her declaration to when the sound stopped coming from the figure in question's mouth, an indication of the influence Ymir held even in a situation when her hands were metaphorically tied.

"We better keep moving" a quiet yet firm voice suggested with a softness that made the words seem to float through the air rather than carrying the authoritativeness that they truly possessed. If there was any concern as to the possibility of a brawl breaking out during this dire situation it suddenly fades away faster than the heat vapors of the cadet's breath against the brutal wind that caused everyone except Ymir and Mikasa to experience the occasional shiver make its way down their spine when the wind somehow managed to find a way through their many layers of winter clothing. Moving towards the individual at the front of the group, the only one who was gifted with a map as to the paths that had to be followed if there was any hope to make it through this intolerable exercise, Mikasa lowered the cloth over her mouth to speak.

"How is it Armin?" She asked, causing the individual to shift his head from focusing on the map to give a visible sigh to the fact that he acknowledged Mikasa's presence.

"Fine" Armine answered, desperately trying not to sound even half as cold as he really was,. The decision to focus on preventing himself from sounding physically weak caused his tone to instead yield the fact that he was feeling mentally labored about something, a reality which earned him more of Mikasa's attention.

"What's wrong?" she asked, causing Armin to almost instinctively look over his shoulder before returning his gaze to the map.

"It's nothing" he began before, feeling Mikasa's unyielding stare, electing to add.

"It's just that, I think...that, given, the conditions, the topographical land marks on the might be... useless" he answered, trying to do so in a way that would convey the potential seriousness of the situation they were slowly being pulled into without soliciting any unnecessary panic. While this strategy might've proved clever or useful on a different soldier it proved to have little effect on Mikasa. At least outwardly, as personally Armin didn't think that there was a man alive who could come anywhere near guessing the full range emotional complexities that were held within her subconscious.

"How about the roads?" she asked, in a hushed tone before once again glancing over her shoulder to the group.

"Perhaps, but the patrols will no doubt be there waiting for us so we should either look to move with caution or continue on our current path through the woods while making as well educated of guesses as we possibly can" Armin whispered back, causing Mikasa to respond with a nod before adding.

"Do what you think is right Armin" and turning to begin mingling with the group once again. Of all the things that Armin had been forced to begin doing since he'd joined up the most challenging of all was undoubtedly having to do what **he thought** was right. It wasn't that Armin was unable to form his own opinions, spending even 5 minutes in a basic conversation with him would almost instantly disprove that theory, it was more so that he was rather silent by nature. However, unlike Mikasa this silence was not made up for by simply and brutally honest language or an aura that could exude hostility at levels that would intimidate many of those who opposed her. Rather it manifested in the development of a timid child who, in exchange for being considerate to others, often was willing to sacrifice what he thought or knew was the right course of action in any given scenario. So one could imagine his surprise when he received the news of his appointment to the rank of sergeant, with the possibility of further rapid advancement if he should prove capable in the position.

 _"If you don't mind sir, may I ask 'why'?" he'd inquired moments after the notices for rank advancements had been posted outside of the mess hall for all of the recruits to see. The officer in question, an old lieutenant by the name of Giovanni Sarkozy who sported a mustache that was as dark as ebony and as curly as they came, proceeded to let out what seemed like a sigh that was both annoyed as well as disappointed upon hearing the boy's declaration._

 _"Cadet, have you by any chance seen the scores that you've managed to obtain on the majority of the courses that we've put you on over the course of the past few months?" Sarkozy had asked, causing Armin to begin to mentally sweat. Sure he'd glanced at the first few tests, but as time had gone on he'd found it harder and harder to focus on anything other than the mistakes he'd made whilst also being able to comply the current training schedule. A fact that meant that he was by no means receiving the full picture of his abilities._

 _"N-Not really sir" Armin had answered with a slight tone of shame in his voice as he did so._

 _"According to those scores you have managed to demonstrate an incredibly large amount of skill for an individual of your age given the lack of formal education that you've been allotted you" the lieutenant began, causing Armin to begin to feel a slight rising his ever low self-esteem._

 _"However, in spite of these abilities there is one thing that most of the instructors here have noticed that you lack; that being a badly needed amount of self-confidence" the lieutenant added causing the ever familiar feeling of dread to suddenly appear in Armin's gut. Causing his to begin to visibly tense up at what at the time had looked to begin the beginning of one of the many tongue lashings that Armin, and so many of his fellow cadets, had been exposed to during the majority of their training. However, if that was what he had been expecting what he received was something completely different._

 _"As such the majority of the instructors here felt as though this would be a good way to increase that confidence in a controlled environment before you end up on the front lines,and I must say that while I do not think that this is the best way to do such a thing, I personally believe that the goal is indeed one to strive for" he'd seemed to finish before proceeding to add, much to Armin's surprise._

 _"and honestly Sergeant if I were you I'd seize the opportunity and see what I could do"_

Honestly, things hadn't really changed that much for Armin. Well, except for the fact that all of the friends that he had previously been able to speak casually with were now required to address him as either "sergeant" or "sir" to which he would almost always have to reply with "at ease". A minor detail which made these previously entirely uninteresting conversations suddenly a little more awkward than they should have been. However, like so many other things that they'd been forced to endure, the group had managed to eventually adapt to the new situation they found themselves in and it was in the memory of this that Armin was currently racking his brain as he analyzed the situation. A situation which would result in them either continue blindly trudging through the snow based on an estimated path of trajectory derived from landmarks on a map or risk "capture" in this training scenario to follow the road to the checkpoint that would mark the end of the training session.

'So many choices' Armin sarcastically thought to himself before shifting his gaze up from the map again to examine his surrounding for the umpteenth time.

"Sergeant" a voice called, causing Armin to suddenly turn around and find himself staring nearly face to face with Eren who was standing in a respectful, and slightly pained pose with a shaky salute. Of all the individuals in their tiny group who'd had to get used to the idea of Armin their superior in rank instead of equal Eren had somehow managed to do it the fastest. While there were a plethora of possible reasons the most likely, that meaning that the one Armin personally hoped was the most rue, was that this new adoption of duty was based out of their friendship and the fact that Eren respected him. Regardless, it would be nothing short of a poorly fabricated lie to say that Eren, and therefore by default Mikasa, were willing to help him in terms of securing some level of discipline in the enforcing of his orders. In other words if he was their squad's brain, they were its spine.

"At ease Eren, what is it?" Armin asked, causing Eren to lower his salute. That had been another thing to be altered by their instructors, the unit's salute. Instead of performing the traditional salute that the rest of the Eldian military was known far, the clenching of one's hands into fists before placing one fist on one's chest and the other behind one's back, they were given a new one. Needless to say that when the cadets had first been instructed on the manner in which the salute was conducted they, including Armin, had all felt a little bit...silly. After all who simply uses one arm and flat hand in a sight of loyalty or respect? How could the officers instructing them keep such a straight, dare he even say tense, face when doing it? But as all things in the military after enough practice, and punitive push-ups, the units had managed to get the relatively simple gesture down.

"Do you know when we'll be moving out again?" he asked, causing Armin to feel his gaze slowly begin to drift towards the map before swiftly returning back to Eren.

"Yes, in a few minutes" he began before shifting the pack on his shoulder and adding.

"Tell everyone that we'll be making our way towards the main path, but to stay hidden in the tree line so that when we reach it we can follow it without being detected".

"Sure thing" Eren declared back and began to run back towards the group before turning around and briefly adding.

"Sir" to which Armin simply saluted. Once Eren had gone from sight Eren proceeded to let out a silent sigh as he turned his attention back to the map in front of him, giving it one last self reassuring look before stuffing it into his pack and preparing to move out with his small unit. Hoping that he'd made the right decision.

* * *

February 28th, AOT Universe, Eldian Military Training Camp 13 (1 Hour Later)

Cesar couldn't help but gently place the letter down as he finished reading it for what must've been the twelfth time, finding it's contents just as surprising this time as when he had first read it. This must've been some sort of sick joke. Some mistake. Or at least that had been what Cesar had thought when he'd finished reading the letter for the first time. A feeling which had only slightly decreased on his second reading which had caused him to read it again, and again, and again studying every single word, sentence, and paragraph each time that he did. Before he knew it he was in his current position, the truth having by now fully sunk into his brain.

'Spring' he thought to himself before he cast his eyes back to the window of the rendezvous shack and took a deep breath. Boy, how he wished Joseph was with him right now. Maybe then he could convince him to give him a cigarette, you know just to find out what it was really like to smoke one so that he might've been able to create an allusion of calmness in doing so. But of course that was one might get addicted, right? Hooked on the illusion and then pursuing any means to reach the same intensity of your original illusion. An intensity that could never be reached, laying the grounds for a craving that could never be satisfied.

"Spring" Cesar muttered, before leaning back in his chair. Spring, late spring to be exact, was when the Legion was to be put into the field. Their capacity would be limited at first, but would gradually grow with the intention of eventually having them be fit to the point where they could manage themselves. In other words in a little over 2 full months this unit was going to be in the field as per the orders from head quarters, whether they were ready or not. Cesar most likely would've most likely continued to sit as he now was, silent with leaning forwards in his chair with his hands firmly clasped together, if the door hadn't suddenly swung open allowing a burst of frigidly cold air in.

"Sir!" a voice shouted, causing Cesar to realize the door's opening was not the doing of a faulty hinge, but rather a soldier and as such he rose from his position to meet him.

"What is it private?" Cesar asked, to which the soldier proceeded to salute before responding with.

"Team 4 has just entered into the camp with all of their members accounted for" the soldier declared causing Cesar to pause before casting his gaze at the letter.

"Thank you for the news private, see to it that they are given warm food a fresh clothing and good sleep" Cesar began before adding.

"and private make sure to securely close that door behind you" hearing this the soldier proceed to give an affirmative salute before declaring "yes sir" and leaving the shack. Rising from his seat and donning his thick woolen jacket Cesar cast another glance back at the envelope in question. Spring, sure he could do it. The troops would hate him, his friend would never forgive him, and he might never be able to live with himself. But sure, spring would do fine. After all wasn't that the trade mark of anyone who was a soldier of the French Foreign Legion? Unflinching adaptability to any and all problems thrown at them or die trying. This train of though caused him to almost flinch.

Dying. What did he know of death? Other than how to inflict its visitation on another human being, what did he know. Not enough obviously, because if he did he might be so casual about saying or thinking it in a sentence like that. Regardless as to what eh currently knew about death he could guarantee one thing for sure; and that was that within three months he would probably know a heck of a lot more. With this he quietly zipped up his coat, grabbed the letter, opened the door, and headed outside. There was some news he had to deliver to the his unit. To his team.


	12. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri** **while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. Please enjoy reading this story.**

 **And Thank you**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

 _'Hi'= Flashback thinking_

 _Hi=Intro_

 ** _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_**

Chapter 11

 _…In recent news, the Coalition has declared that the recently trained experimental units of the Eldian Auxiliary will commence their short trial period of duty as port of the Coalition's long term plan of military operations. At the current moment, they have been stationed to aid in small areas of security duty, a station that has elicited mixed reactions from them due to the strenuous amounts of training that they have been subjected to to over the course of previous year. Of course, like many military enlistments, they grumbling didn't last long. At least not long in the face of their drill sergeant. While I cannot personally confirm it, it looks as though they may be posted somewhere in the Trost District; or somewhere else in Wall Rose. However, if the cadets are itching for action it looks like they'll be in for a long wait. The Coalition Air Forces have made sure to eliminate many of the large buildups of Titans on the other side of the wall; the only problem is that the titans seem to appear as quickly as their dispatched, so much so that now thesorties for wall security are limited to "high risk" areas to avoid wasting ammunition._

 _Speaking on the matter of walls I also have some thoughts on them as well, primarily regarding their purpose. In one of the reports sent to one of the other networks it was suggested that they served a purely defensive purpose, the testimony of a people using outdated technology and tactics. However, after having spent several days looking at the situation in Trost and having seen photos from the insides of Wall Sheena I can tell you that such theories are all wrong. These walls do not simply serve a defensive purpose, but a social one as well. Wall Rose is where the lower to regular middle classes and refugees reside, and from the looks of it Wall Sheena is the place of the wealthy, which means that one can only assume that Wall Maria was primarily the home of the peasants. While I would like to remind you that this is only a working theory that may be revised upon the collection of new information, I would like to remind you that it is in deed based on already gathered in formation._

 _As such I will continue reporting on the situation here until I am replaced._

Sincerely,

Madeline Fichte

(Unpublished report from Mrs. Fichte, received June 1st)

* * *

June 3rd 14:00 hrs. , AOT Universe, Eldian Security Checkpoint, Trost District

The sizzling rays of the summer sun shone down mercilessly on the many Late Medieval Era looking buildings of the Trost District, the rays coming from a sun who was given the opportunity to reside in the a picture perfect blue sky with relative impunity, not a single cloud threatening to dampen its rays. For the residents of the district the heat was truly nothing special, a typical staple of the season that was a normal a using salt to preserve fish, and as such they'd taken the best precautions possible. Almost every single window of every single house, even those that were facing the street, were open in an attempt to get some level of cool air and general air circulation going through the stuffy, tight houses. On top of that many, as in virtually all, of the citizens wore some sort of slightly stripped down version of their normal attire. Men didn't wear jacket, rolled up their sleeves & pant legs, hots, and some didn't wear their day time stockings. Many women didn't wear their petty coats, hoods, and additional external layers on dresses when they were able, and almost everyone was trying to remain within a reasonable distance of some sort of water source or tavern for refreshment.

Well, almost everyone. For in spite of the rather noteworthy heat of this rather sunny day there was one group of individuals who found themselves unable to engage in these few concessions, and Sergeant Armin Arlert was one of these individuals. The Sergeant in question was clad in the distinct baggy, potato sack brown uniform that he and his unit had been made to get used to being dressed in over the course of the past year. With the only major way to telling him apart from the other soldiers being the few bars on his arm and the fact that unlike the rest of the soldiers who wore summer pilotkas* with helmets on their knapsacks, he wore a soviet officer's hat complete with a maroon visor and a helmet in his knapsack.

Feeling the heat starting to get to him Armin couldn't help but instinctively proceed to wipe his face with the handkerchief that had come with his uniform, the attachment for some reason being deemed of "critical importance" by his instructors when he'd initially received it, before taking a sip from his canteen. He, and the rest of his unit, had been positioned at the rather smaller checkpoint set up by the Coalition military since about 7 am that morning with the specific instructions to strictly monitor the sector. Their main point of focus was the monitoring of any movement of local mercantile products, local persons, and the protection of any UN or Coalition vehicles and supply trucks. As such, Armin had found himself sitting in the post's small hut on its wooden chair for about 5 hours, without so much of a break and it was needless to say that his behind, and his unit's legs, were beyond sore.

As such, with so little having occurred, was it any wonder that when a small bit of static began to crackle on the radio rather than moving the dial machine's dial to the either get rid of the signal Armin instead moved one of the dials to purify it. It didn't take long, only a few seconds of mindful tinkering, to purify the signal before a distinctly foreign sound began making its way through. The sound seemed smooth, like a freshly sharpened knife, with various minute dips and flows of the sound being sudden and sometimes jagged but ultimately not entirely unappealing. It might've been due to its foreign appeal, or maybe because of the fact that the unpredictable dips and flows could easily be made into an entertaining guessing game based around their occurrence, or that it served as a great distraction from the lack of action during the day but after several minutes Armin made the decision to not turn it off.

"Hey Armin, what's that weird music?" a weary tone that bore a trace of boredom that could only belong to one person called causing Armin to look up from his post and see Jean standing there. Of all the soldiers in the unit, Jean had had perhaps been the one to accept Armin's preference of just being referred to as normal with the greatest speed and level of enthusiasm. A sort of relief to Armin that regardless of his rank as long as it was possible Jean would still be Jean, albeit a no longer pretentious version of the kid who had joined the 1st Eldian Legion one year ago.

"I don't know, but do you like it? The song just came onto the radio, so I purified the waves by changing the frequency using the dials" Armin answered causing what he swore sort of looked like a glimmer of light to shine in Jean's eyes.

'Is he impressed' Armin couldn't help but think to himself as he watched the boy standing opposite from him reached into his breat pocket before pulling a white box from it and pulling out a thin paper tube and lighting it.

"Sounds like something that those foreign instructors would play in the evening during the winter" Jean more or less grunted out before removing the tube and exhaling a small breath of smoke. The small tube, apparently known as a "cigarette", had been one of the many things handed down to the cadets on the night that they had graduated from their year's worth of training; when lit the tube emitted a peculiar and somewhat foul stench that was similar to that of the pipe Armin's grandfather had smoked while he was alive. In fact, as much as he and the other recruits of the 1st Legion hated to admit it, it appeared as though it was more so their being supplied with these cigarettes, which apparently were donned by the foreign soldiers, that made the connection to their instructors more clear to the crowd than their uniforms or equipment. It also became clear that these things could easily doubt as a sort of illegal and unspoken currency within the walls of Trost and with their local populace, a sign of the normalization of the previously taboo tendency of trading that sometimes occurred by Coalition soldiers and Trost's native populace.

"Yeah, it kind of-" Armin began only to have his train of thought be cut off by the sound of a panicked gasp. Turning his head towards where the rest of his unit were on the road he instantly noticed that one of them was looking through a pair of binoculars while another boasted a wide eyed, shocked, and fearful faces. Mouths hanging wide open in an unabashedly gaping manner. It was then that he donned a pair of his own binoculars allowed his gaze to follow their line of sight and became aware of the thing which had warranted their complete, and undivided attention. Off in the distance, not too far so that he realized his binoculars weren't entirely necessary, was what looked to be the Colossal Titan.

The beast stood behind the gate of Wall Rose, it's head and shoulder looming largely over the rest of it's body; and then, in what could only be described as a haunting repeat of the incident which had occurred roughly 4 years earlier, it seemed to open it's mouth to form a haunting smile. Then, seconds later, the front gate of Wall Maria seemed to explode, hurling large chunks of debris through the air towards the inner area of Trost and Armin's small checkpoint. Armin wasn't sure who it was who gave the command, and truth be told he didn't really care, because out of thin air came a single distinct and authoritative shout.

"Take cover!"

* * *

June 3rd 14:00 hrs. , AOT Universe, Eldian Aid Station, Trost District

"Alright ma'am just make sure that you son doesn't put too much strain on his arm and everything should be better in a few days" a kind voice called causing Annie's bored gaze to suddenly shift to see a man offering a friendly gaze and wave towards a young mother who looked to be walking off with a young child. The man in question was one Daz, a recently licensed medic who was charged with aiding the local residences of this section of the district with any medical cases that were not serious enough to warrant the attention of a medical professional trained in the use of heavy duty medical equipment. However, it would be easy to fail to see why Annie would be necessary at such an aid station and, truth be told, the Sergeant-Major would be less than somewhat interested in telling you.

It was no secret that the young Leonhart was by far, without a doubt, the best soldier in the entirety of the 1st Eldian Legion when it came to the all areas of fitness and the majority of areas in strategic ability. She'd not simply passed, but excelled in nearly all areas of every training course that was required of them and the fruit of her efforts had been the ranking at the top of the class she'd been awarded by her instructors. But now that ranking, along with the entirety of the training course she and the others had been forced to take, seemed to have been entirely for nothing. After all, how were they supposed to aid in the freeing of humanity when they'd been tasked with sitting on their thumbs and doing nothing?

Needless to say that as she sat in the small medical shack there were many thoughts running through Annie's bran, and not all of them were good. However, all that changed when she'd heard a round of gasps go throughout the shack causing her interest, although not her gaze, to be slightly peaked.

"Sergeant- Major are you seeing this?" A frightened voice that could only belong to Daz asked, causing Annie to look up from the current documents she'd been examining with a rather bored expression. Truth be told, she didn't know what sight she'd been expecting to be waiting for her when she looked up. Perhaps the line of civilians to have some how managed to grow in the short time between her last glance through the windows? Perhaps that said civilians were beginning to become disorderly? Or perhaps, in her wildest dreams, that a messenger had arrived from headquarters announcing that they were to be reposted to an active sector?

What ever it had been it was most certainly not one thing, and that was to be greeted with the sight of the Colossal Titan bearing down upon the entirety of the Trost District from a vantage point above Wall Maria. Yet, that's exactly what she found herself facing from where she sat, causing her mind to instantly go back to a discussion she'd had the evening before the unit had been posted to Trost.

 _The weather had been cold that evening, even by the region's standards of normal temperature differentiation in terms of night and day. Yet there she'd been, standing behind one of the many administration huts that lined the camp's outer perimeter with two other individuals standing across from her. Truth be told none of them had wanted to have this meeting this evening, it was a time of celebration and even by their standards the work demanded of them over the past year had been strenuous. As such all of them wanted to unwind, even if for Annie that didn't mean joining in with the celebrations of her fellow squamates._

 _However, the camp administration had been so tight on curfew that their ability to meet had been severely hampered by nightly patrols and tight security. So here they were, in the middle of an emergency as to how they should make their next move before the unit made one of its own._

 _"So what should we do?" the individual in front of her asked, breaking the growing silence between the three of them._

 _"We can't be hasty" the second one responded._

 _"But look where indecision has gotten us now" the first one fired back, earning a nervous shift from his compatriot. All the while Annie stood there silently, her own thoughts elsewhere. Particularly on the possibility of their being another way to accomplish their goals that her compatriots weren't willing to consider. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to think for long._

 _"Annie, what do you think?" her first compatriot asked, causing her to look at the two of them with the same emotionless face she always had._

 _"I think that we might be mistaking a possible solution for a problem" she answered, causing both of the individuals in front of her to visibly shift with discomfort._

 _'What do you mean?" the first one asked, causing her to roll her eyes before responding._

 _"Are you both so blind that you can't see the cure for your disease in front of you?" if this insult was supposed to enlighten the two of them to her train of thought it failed miserably, causing her to sigh at the realization she'd have to explain everything._

 _"It's become clear to me that these instructors sent to teach us, and the generals they serve, have seen the condition our people are in" she began, her tone cold and smooth as usual._

 _"Therefore, if given the right amount of convincing and approached in the right manner, it may be possible for us to gain them as allies in our struggle"._

 _"What are you suggesting? That we simply wait and allow events to come to us?" the first one asked, causing Annie to be slightly irritated by her compatriot's blindness._

 _"No" she began, irritation beginning to fill her tone._

 _"But I am simply suggesting that when the opening reveals itself to us, that then and only then, might be the best time for us to push the envelope"._

 _"What would that opening be?" the second figure tentatively asked, causing Annie to shrug in response._

 _"I don't know, anyways I'm going back to the party before anyone misses me" she answered before turning around and heading out. Ignoring the calls of her two compatriots to stay behind and clarify what she meant._

She hadn't had the interest in doing it then, but she was already beginning to regret it now as the Titan looked across the entirety of the district. It's gaze somehow giving off the feeling that it was searching specifically for her.

'My God, he's actually going to do it' she thought to herself seconds before the front gate of Wall Maria exploded right before her eyes. Sending huge chunks of debris speeding towards her, giving her and the rest of the people at the tiny aid station little time to react. The war had begun.

* * *

June 3rd 14:02 hrs. , AOT Universe, Utopia Aerodrome, Trost District

While many people were trying to take cover from the normal heat of the summer season by trying to find a balance between wearing the minimum amount of practical daily clothing that was required by their occupation and maintaining a certain level of respectability the same could not be said for the whole of the population within Wall Maria. The individual in question, who could at best be described as slightly over dressed given the weather and at worst could be described as having donned an outfit that seemed entirely unnecessary, could be seen in the cockpit of one of the fighter jets that had recently landed on the new Aerodrome's tarmac. The aircraft in question was a French Dessault-Breguet Super Étendard and the individual in question was none other than Second Lieutenant Antoni Bartosz.

Letting of a slightly fatigued sigh Antoni couldn't help but proceed to slowly take off the standard issue pilot's helmet and begin to wipe the overwhelming amount of sweat which had formed on his brow before attempting to relax, only to find his attempt would not last as long as he had previously desired.

"How's it up their sir?" a rather young voice asked, causing Antoni to open his right eye and throw a weak glance which allowed him to catch one of the Aerodrome's many ground crew. Based on the uniform style, and subsequent amount of bars allotted on the ground crewmen's shoulder Antoni guessed that the man was probably a mechanic and as such felt that there was a need to provide at least the basic amount of respect to the man by answering the question. That was if he ever desired to have a working relationship with the individual who would be responsible for maintaining his plane's flying condition.

"Hot, that's how it is" Antoni answered before lifting himself from the cockpit and carefully making his way down the side of the aircraft to where the ground crewmen stood.

"I second that, sir" he responded, causing Antoni to nod before using his arm to once again wipe the sweat from his brow. To say that selection of the Eldian Legion's Airwing's grounds crewmen had been hectic would've been an understatement, in truth it was nothing short of a nightmare. A group cobbled together from washouts of the more engagement based side of the military the Airwing's groundcrews, and the support staff of the whole Legion for that matter, were essentially comprised of anyone who wanted a second chance at a military career based on their pre-existing skills. With the unit collected, then the unit was given training separate from the rest of the units and equipped before being sent off with the unit.

"Any orders from the Captain?" Antoni asked, causing the grounds crewmen to pull out what looked to be a small notepad before flipping through a few pages and stopping.

"Captain Khansari has given orders to refuel all of your planes and have them on stand by" he responded, earning a frustrated sigh from Antoni.

'Doesn't he realize that we just got off a patrol?' he thought before giving his official answer of.

"Alright, get to work" earning him a salute from the grounds crewmen before he proceeded to make his way to the dispatcher's hut. Reaching the hut, Antoni proceeded to make his way to the hut's water closer and grab a face rag from its cupboard, stocked for controllers pulling late shifts, and wiped his face of the last of his sweat before moving onto do the same with his helmet. However, before he could finish he was interrupted by the sound of someone walking into the water closet.

"Oh sorry Antoni, didn't see you there" a friendly voice said, causing him to look up and see the unit's second in command standing there.

"No problem sir, I wasn't using it anyways" Antoni replied before exiting the water closet and hearing the door shut behind him and a far less friendly voice in front of him.

"Oh Antoni, I see that you managed to make it to the ground" Captain Khansari stated as he looked at him before raising an eyebrow and adding.

"Tell me, did you feel the need to kiss the ground this time too?" as if almost on command Antoni felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment at the Captain's reference to the first time he'd been taken up in a plane and discovered how little he trusted the aircraft's structural integrity. Luckily he had, or at least he though he had, gotten over it which was why he stood here now.

"Very funny sir but no, to answer your question, I most certainly did not" he answered, a response which earned him a rather cheeky look on the Captain's face.

"Good, that means we can still make an airmen out of you yet my friend" Captain Khansari replied, before the declaration of an inaudible sound caused both him and Antoni to turn their attention towards the hut's attendant.

"Sir, there's news about Titan movement in the vicinity of Trost district" the man shouted, causing Captain Khansari to simply shrug in response.

"There's always movement in that area but no Titans above 15 meters ever seem to be gathering there" Khansari began before adding.

"With how small those things are we'd cause more damage than good to the wall should we try to protect it, along with wasting ammunition; but I guess we could send a two man patrol to inspect the area in half an hour" with that he began to make his way towards the hut's door only for the attendant to yell.

"But it's an escadron wide scramble sir"

"Oh for God's sake don't be so wet behind your ears!" Khansari thundered back from the hut's door.

"Look we've been conducting patrols off and on since 10:30hrs, besides we've only just come down, we're still refueling tell control-" the captain began only for the sound of something slamming into the ground to interrupt him. Instantly looking up from his spot by the window Antoni was stunned at the sight of a giant boulder having landed near one of the field's maintenance sheds.

"Look!" the attendant shouted seconds before Antoni felt something being shoved into his chest. Looking down he noted that it was pair of binoculars and, taking them from the attendant, proceeded to look towards the horizon along the invisible line that he was pointing. Looking on the horizon he was able to vaguely make out what was Wall Rose and then something that made his blood run cold. Above the wall looked to be what might've been the upper half of a giant figure. A Titan.

'By the walls its happening' Antoni thought as he slowly lowered his binoculars, the knowledge that the attack that he and his comrades had always joked about taking place was finally happening.

"Antoni" a voice shouted, causing him to look up and see the captain walking past him before pounding authoritatively on the bathroom door and shouting something in his native tongue to the man on the other side before turning his attention back to Antoni.

"Well, don't just stand there gawking, get one up!" the captain ordered as he made his way to the door, causing Antoni to give an affirmative salute before following him out. The two men made a mad dash for their planes, Antoni noting the rather large amount of chaos that was taking place around them as he did so.

"Antoni" a gentle voice called out, causing the man in question to glance to his left and see his squad mate Mina Carolina standing with her flight suit zipped up but additional equipment not on.

"What's going on?"

"Rocks came flying down from the sky just a few moments ago and there's a giant titan by Wall Maria" he shouted back seeing the girl's face begin to drain before adding.

"It's possible that there might be a breach, I don't know how bad, but we've got to get our planes off the ground before the things decides to widen the hole" with that Mina offered an affirmative nod right as a fresh voice chimed in.

"What're you two doing? Becoming love birds? Get you planes off the ground on the double!" not needing to turn around to know who it was Antoni, and Mina who was looking towards the speaker, both instinctively gave a salute followed by a "yes sir" before running to their aircraft.

"She's already sir" the grounds crewman shouted as Antoni reached his plane and proceeded to climb up the win and into the cockpit.

"Alright thanks" he replied as he began to strap himself in and properly attack his mask to his face.

"Get one of 'em for me sir" the grounds crewman shouted to which Antoni, now having clipped his mask on rendering him unable to speak, proceeded to give an affirmative thumbs up before starting up the ending of his Dessault-Breguet Super Étendard. Hurrying through the normal start up procedure and checks Antoni moved his aircraft onto the runway in as clean of a fashion as he possibly could, his progress being hampered by the many grounds crewmen and women who were hurriedly scurrying to find cover after having probably completed their pre-take off duties with their assigned pilot.

"All pilots, align yourselves in the proper take off-" the air traffic controller began only for a rock to slam into the lower offices at the base of the control tower.

"-all air craft cancel that order take off in the order you arrive, I repeat take off in the order your arrive" the man on the other end proceeded to state, correcting his previous statement as another wave of rocks came flying onto the aerodrome. Reaching the second approach to the taxi way Antoni proceeded to turn his aircraft onto the main runway before begin to taxi to the end and turn for take off. It was as he began to make his way down the runway for take-off that he noticed **it** , what looked to be a rather large shadow on the ground. Looking up he noticed something not to far off in the distance rapidly approaching him.

'Oh crap!' he mentally cried as he realized that the shape was a rock, and that he was directly in its current path of trajectory. In an attempt to avoid being hit he proceeded to increase the plane's speed and allow it to take off earlier.

'Come one, come on' he frantically thought to himself as he made multiple glances to the object, before beginning to veer off from the runway to prevent what he thought might be a passing glance from overly damaging his plane. With his plane towards the front end of the runway and beginning to take off, Antoni proceeded to look at the approaching object one more time, no doubt unable to predict that it would be the last thing he'd ever see. For less than one second later he, and the Dessault-Breguet Super Étendard he was flying were gone.

* * *

 _To all this may apply,_

 _This is an urgent message to be opened by the leading commander of Operation Troy as soon as possible. As of a few minutes ago the entirety of Trost District and the surrounding military bases have fallen under enemy attack. I request immediate back up from all available forces not only in the settlement, but also in the initial military drop off point in the theatre with the intention of allotting re-enforcements to stem the flow of enemy forces and protect the current civilian population. While I am not one to embellish a situation, I must tell you in all honesty that due to the unreliability of the local units and untested nature of the Eldian Auxiliary unless regular troops are sent as re-enforcements to the area there is a significant threat that we may lose control of the district and surrounding area._

 _Honorably,_

 _Lieutenant David Hoffman Canadian 83rd Infantry Division stationed within Trost_

 _*_ pilotka: A simple, thin Soviet side cap often warn in summer by Soviet infantry soldiers


	13. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. I would also like to thank ManwithaPlan113 for volunteering to serve as a proofreader for my story. Please enjoy reading this story. And Thank you.

"Hi!"=Yelling/Title

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

"Hi" = Flashback

'Hi'= Flashback thinking

Hi=Intro

"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling

Chapter 12

June 3rd 14:03 hrs., AOT Universe, Eldian Aid Station, Trost District

Modern warfare is a messy business. Bullets can easily pierce through a human body, tearing through anything that happens to get in their way. Artillery and its many forms of ordinance make the destruction on entrenched positions and enemy combatants, as well as innocent civilians, an almost daily occurrence. Navies allow for the transportation of men, munitions, and aircraft anywhere in the world, making no place safe. While the creation of the modern air force, with its long range tactical strike craft means that death can come from the sky at almost any time or place. Yet, even with all that said and all the training designed to conflict it, Daz stood in the ruins of the aid station he felt so unprepared.

As if, in the scramble to technically prepare for the role of a medic, his instructors had forgotten to teach him how to deal with one inevitable side of battle. A side that was slowly being presented to him.

That side in question was the chaos of battle and all of the horrors that came with it. Sure, Daz had been made to perform mock aid on soldiers injured in wargames. Which meant that the sounds of munitions going off weren't new to him, nor were the groans of his comrades as they pretended to be in agony from their mock wounds. But, nonetheless as he stood at what had been the front of the damaged aid station he couldn't help but sense something new in the air. A component that, even when his comrades were acting at their best, hadn't been instilled into him during training. Simply put, that component was fear and what he was currently feeling was all the apprehension that came with it.

This already traumatic experience was made even worse by the fact that for Daz, this was the first time that he'd been made to experience the reality and the lightning speed that a titan attack could appear. Making Daz slowly begin to understand as to why neither the Garrison nor the Survey Corps ever seemed to be able to properly defeat the titans whenever they engaged them. Often being defeated, with the breaking of this bad news being the occasional pyrrhic victory.

"Hey Daz!" a voice called, causing the man in question to snap out of his gaze to see where it was coming from and finding himself looking towards Sergeant-Major Leonhart as she approached him.

"Yes, ma'am" he answered, attempting to raise his right hand in a steady salute only for him to realize how badly he was shaking.

"At ease, are you hurt?" she asked causing Daz to suddenly looked down and, for the first time since he'd picked his was out of the pile of rubble that had been the office he'd entered, began to examine his person for any injuries.

"Nothing, but a few scratches ma'am" Daz answered before patting the sleeves of his jacket and causing small clouds of dust to suddenly rise from his person.

"Good" Annie said before casting a glance at the destruction that surrounded them. It wasn't just the aid station that was had been hit by the blast from the wall, in fact Annie would go as far as to say that the station had taken the least amount of damaged due to being shielded by the surrounding buildings. Said buildings were now destroyed, some beyond recognition while most could have been repaired relatively easily, and their occupants, or what was left of them, littered the street. Making the area almost entirely beyond recognition, its inhabitants roaming the street in a sort of dazed and shocked state. The world as they previously knew it having suddenly and violently come to an end.

"Daz, I'm going to need you to try to make something out of this" Annie began, gaining her Daz's attention.

"Like what?"

"Hopefully some rescue efforts but most likely an evacuation, especially if the vanguard units can't slow the titans down" Annie continued before turning her attention back to Daz and finishing with.

"Do you understand?" If this same situation had occurred roughly a year ago Daz wouldn't have understood anything. Not the situation, not the people trapped in in, and most certainly not his own role in addressing it. In fact, as much as he hated to acknowledge it, he might've already begun to make his way back to the rear in an attempt at self preservation. Leaving the unfortunate inhabitants of this area, as well as the soldiers sent to help them, to what was almost guaranteed to be a grizzly fate. But now, things were different.

"Yes ma'am, I'll try to organize the boys right away" Daz answered, causing Annie to nod and respond.

"Good, I'll try to get the radio in the station up and running to radio for some additional vehicles to help transport the wounded and find out where they want us to evacuate to" with that Annie walked past him and further into the aid station and towards the main command office. It was at that moment, for a reason that was truly beyond him, that Daz realized that he was no longer wearing the hat he'd been issued and turned his attention towards the rubble he'd crawled out of in an attempt to find it. Shifting the pile around a bit Daz was eventually able to find it and dust it off in an attempt to make it look presentable, for reasons couldn't explain, before jogging over towards where some aid workers had gathered.

"Sir, over here" one of the individuals, who appeared to be a man, declared as he waved his hands wildly in the air. Probably thinking that Daz was planning to jog past them rather than to them. Causing Daz to abandon his jog and break into a run as he neared the man and his accomplices, a feeling of urgency beginning to come over him.

"What is it?" Daz asked upon reaching the group, causing the man who'd signaled him to point at the small structure that was next to him, causing Daz to cast his gaze that same way. What Daz saw was a numbing sight, as in front of him was what looked to be a young boy who was buried from the waste down under a pile of debris, cuts and bruises littering his body. To make the whole thing worse the boy was fully conscious and was crying fat tears, no doubt from the pain of being under the debris, and had what looked to be his mother clutching him in a soothing manner, trying to offer some sort of comfort.

"After the blast we got up and began looking for survivors in the rubble and found these two" the man answered, causing the boy to begin sobbing even louder.

"Is he injured?" Daz asked, causing one of the other men to answer back with.

"We don't know, but we know he can't dislodge himself from the rubble and it takes all three of us to get enough of the rubble off of him to move him". Nodding upon hearing this Daz proceeded to take a deep breath an attempt to calm himself as the sound of further survivors crying out for help, and the cries of other inhabitants who no doubt were finding their loved ones dead by one means or another.

"Okay, I want all of you to grab bits of the rubble and on the count of three shift it so that I can move him out" Daz ordered causing the three men to nod before strategically positioning themselves around the boy.

"Sir, are you going to get him out?" the woman asked, the combination of the distressed tone in her voice and the terrified look in her eyes causing Daz to feel all the breath escape from his lungs before answering with.

"Don't worry miss, we'll get him out in a second"

"Okay, boys on my count" Daz stated before beginning.

"One"

"Two"

"Three" and with that the three men lifted the rubble and allow Daz to begin to pull the as hard as he could and as fast as he could seconds before the rest of the men dropped the debris. Successfully dislodging the boy from the rubble, but also causing Daz's stomach to take a dive. While the boy's leg was still attached, it was badly gashed and bleeding profusely. Possibly suggesting a wound that was closer to the boy's femoral artery than anyone should be comfortable with. The boy must've seen the look on Daz's face for he suddenly began to sob again and garner Daz's attention.

"Don't worry kid you're going to be alright" Daz stated a firmly as he could before turning and handing the boy to one of the men.

"Take him to the station and try to get his wounds dressed and the bleeding stemmed, Sergeant-Major Leonhart is calling for additional transports when they get here I want this boy to be one of the first patients placed on them and I want him watched by you personally when he's evacuated" before adding.

"Understood" the man in question offered an affirming nod before running to aid station, the boy's mother following dutifully behind him, leaving Daz with the rest of the men.

"Alright, let's try and find some more survivors" he added, before leading them off in the direction of another group of at all prepared for the additional surge in chaos that was rapidly coming his way.

* * *

June 3rd 14:05 hrs., AOT Universe, Eldian Security Checkpoint, Trost District

If the scene at the aid station was hectic the one at the crossroads was in total chaos. For while both were hit by the debris and force of the Colossal Titan's kick the aid station was not currently under attack. Well at least not yet, and it was the job of the Armin's unit to keep it that way for as long as possible. But that idea in itself was truly something that was easier said than done.

"Sir, Sir!" a loud voice called causing Armin to look up from his crouched spot in the outpost's fortified trench, his current task of attaching another magazine to his FAMAS F1.

"What?"

"A message from headquarters" the individual, who now looked to be Connie Springer, declared before extending the hand which held the phone like piece in a violent motion. His steel helmet sliding forwards on his bald head, coving his eyes as a result and making him look a little less serious. If only this development had any effect on the situation at hand Armin might've given into his small temptation to chuckle at Connie. Wrenching the phone from his hand Armin proceeded to shove it next to his ear, subconsciously ducking his head at the sound of more ammunition being fired and debris landing around him, before shouting into the phone.

"This is Sergeant Alert, you have my attention"

"Sergeant, we have been getting reports from all over your sector, what's your situation?" a voice on the other end of the receiver boomed, somehow managing to sound infinitely louder than the various distracting noises that were going off behind Armin.

"We're currently under attack, but we're managing to hold fairly well" Armin began, before biting his lip and adding.

"However, unless we receive air support it's highly unlikely that we will be able to hold this position much longer". For a few seconds there was a brief pause, as if the speaker on the other end of the phone was in the middle of contemplating a rather hard decision, before the silence was finally broken.

"Sergeant, what're your coordinates?" the speaker asked, causing Armin to almost instinctively reach for his breast pocket where a small map a quickly scanned it over before responding with.

"We look to be to the immediate east of the tertiary headquarters, the one that's marked on the map as a small castle and doubles as a supply depot". Once again his response was meet with a brief pause before the speaker on the other end of the receiver once again gave an authoritative answer.

"Sergeant fall back to the that headquarters post to regroup with other units from your area and dig in, it's imperative that you do not let the enemy get past you, it's the only way you can muster enough strength to prevent them from attacking the main aid station". Armin didn't need to protest, the mere thought of what the titans would do to all the innocent civilians if they got through was enough to make his skin crawl. He could already hear the screams, see the blood flowing, and was beginning to get faint images of parents struggling to protect their children from the creatures' looming jaws. An image that reminded him too much of the attack on Shinganshina all those years ago, and the carnage that had come with it.

'No, not again' Armin thought to himself before placing the speaking end of the phone to his mouth and almost shouting.

"Right sir, we'll be there in under 15 minutes!" before shoving it back into the hands of Connie. An act which gained him an unusual look from the boy.

"What happened Armin?" the boy asked, as Armin shoved his magazine onto the top of his FAMAS.

"A change of plans, that's what happened" Armin answered, before turning to face the rest of his unit.

"Alright, everybody listen up" Armin began, making sure to shout his ensuing orders at the top of his lungs so that he could be heard over the near deafening sound of firearms and rampaging titans.

"We're going to perform an orderly withdrawal back to the tertiary headquarters, begin it on my orders". At first Armin feared that that his orders had been drown out by the other competing sounds on the current battlefield, but luckily it turned out that his soldiers were simply waiting to hear if there was an additional part to his commands. As within a few seconds of his declaration going out the sound of "yes, sir" began to echo about, causing Armin to make his way to Jean.

"Jean, I want you to lead the withdrawal, on my command begin leading the men back" Armin stated, attempting to remain calm as he gave these most careful of instructions. It was these instructions that throw Armin a look of surprise and concern before he asked.

"What about you sir?"

"You know the way right?" Armin countered, causing Jean to simply nod, and allow him to add.

"Then you do that while I bring up the rear, understand". Which earned Armin another nod from Jean before the man slung his weapon over his shoulder and waited for the signal, which Armin clarified would be the raising and dropping of his hand, as he went forwards to the more forward position of the line. It was there that he gave the same orders and directed that he would send the unit back in thirds, appointing a second officer to lead the second third out on his signal. The same one, but with his left hand rather than his right, that he'd planned on giving Jean.

'Oh, grandpa please help me execute this plan well' Armin thought before suddenly raising his right hand into the in the form of fist.

"First squad move out!" he head Jean shout, followed by the sound of boots moving back towards the rear. However, rather than leading to a lessening of fire it seemed that the withdrawal of the troops lead to an increasing of the intensity of rounds being spent by Armin's forces. Perhaps it was due to the fact that those who had left weren't contributing as much fire as previously thought, or maybe it was because the men feared that a decrease in fire might give away their movement to the titans. Causing them to suddenly rush the line, while both lines of through were equally credibly given the stressful nature of the situation the second was more likely.

But that likelihood couldn't prevent the inevitable drop in fire that occurred when Armin raised his left fist and caused the second part of the group to fall back. A development which definitely got the attention of the titans they'd previously been able to suppress by blinding them with bullets from their rifles. As they slowly began to encroach towards the units line of entrenchment, clumsily fumbling their way down the street due to their sudden blindness, the message was slowly becoming clear. It was time to go.

"Third squad follow me" Armin shouted before rising from his crouching position and beginning to fall back while supplying a consistent level of fire. The other members of his unit did likewise, hiding behind certain buildings and other obstacles in an orderly manner to slow the titans' advance. Unaware that this was only the beginning of what would grow to be a nearly two week long baptism of fire, one that would rob all of them of the wide eyed innocence they still had.

* * *

June 3rd 14:10 hrs., AOT Universe, Coalition Headquarters, Ehrmich District

To say that the headquarters of French General Jean-Claude Dreyfus was in the middle of recovering from a bout of hectic confusion would be an understatement. To say that it was in the middle of recovering from a period of chaos was a far more fitting analysis, especially with how quickly things had changed in only a few minutes. No more than 10 minutes ago the staff at the headquarters had been in the middle of dealing with the typical mind numbing day to day banter that confronted any humanitarian Coalition force.

When to schedule relief trucks. Who to schedule to guard them. What local units were properly trained for the task. What Coalition units should be used to supervise them to make sure that things went well. Where should these units be sent to. The little things that never made any of the headlines back home, but were critical for such an operation's success. Then it had happened.

The silence of the beautiful sunny summer day was suddenly shattered by the distinct sound of something flying through the air and impacting something else. The sound had come from the South and as such many of the headquarters staff had turned their attention, and subsequently their binocular, in that general direction to see what was the cause of all the commotion. Only to be confronted by the confusing sight of dust rising in what looked to be the Trost district, the cloud causing the staff's line of sight to be severely impaired.

Then the calls had begun to come in. Some from soldiers speaking in a calm and orderly voice, others in a panicked tone that was unsure of what to do. All from officers of the Eldians Legion. All reporting the same thing, that being that there had been a sudden attack on Wall Rose which had resulted in the compromising of many defensive checkpoints in the immediate area. As well as the pouring of titans into the now open region.

Upon receiving these reports Dreyfus had made what was by far the most reluctant call of his career. That being for the Eldian units to fall back to more defensible positions and wait for Coalition reinforcements until further notice. As well as sending orders to Coalition Air Forces to begin air strikes to begin to blunt the attacks, with the intention of eventually using them to plan a counter-attack. Luckily, since then things had calmed down with the current withdrawals mostly being orderly in execution and all of them having a pre-set destination.

"Sir, you have a visitor" a young voice called causing Dreyfus to look up from the map which way spread out before him. The whole thing being dotted with various marks that detailed where units were and where they were intending to go, or where they had arrived.

In the doorway behind the young junior officer looked to be a man and as Dreyfus began to sturdy him up and down he made numerous notes of his physical attributes and social attire. The man was a fairly tall man who was bald, sported light skin, a distinct mustache, and wrinkles under his eyes. His attire was that of a typical Garrison, the only unusual article of clothing being a purple bolo tie, and he stood in what appeared to be a respectful and orderly manner. A fact that made him instantly more desirable than well over half of the nobles Dreyfus had received complaints from since moving his headquarters to this location.

"May I inquire as to who this man is?" Dreyfus asked causing the junior officer to look back at the man who, while covering his mouth, proceeded to whisper an answer.

"Commander Dot Pixis, sir" the officer answered, causing Dreyfus to stand straight up and stated.

"Alright let him in". From the moment he had moved his headquarters to this area Dreyfus had heard whispers of the Commander who was, at least according to the rumors that he'd heard, the highest ranking Garrison Official in all of the Southern Territories. While this title meant little to Dreyfus, who was the Coalition's second in command, and, if he had been so calloused and arrogant, could have told the man to kiss his wedding ring he knew that it was far smarter to try to make common cause with the man.

However, in his various attempts to contact the man since he'd arrived in Ehrmich he'd never been able to. The man always seeming to have "prior engagements" that always postponed their inevitable meeting. Well, now the situation had changed and ten minutes after an attack he'd managed to get the meeting which had eluded him for months.

"Commander Pixis, it's an honor to see you" Dreyfus stated, a smile coming over his face as he extended his hand in a friendly greeting.

"Likewise General Dreyfus, my friends in the area speak often of you" Pixis responded, causing Dreyfus to make note that the man had not included the word "highly" in his declaration. The man's accent somehow being significantly less pronounced than the many other Eldians Dreyfus had come across. However, he was offered little time to dwell on the obvious subtext that went along with this message as Pixis revealed himself to be just as swift at changing topics as he was at giving greetings.

"So, what's the situation?"

"Well, for starters Wall Rose has been compromised and Titans have penetrated the area immediately surrounding the wall" Dreyfus began, a statement that earned him a rather incredulous look from Pixis.

One that seemed to say "of course it has you idiot, otherwise we wouldn't be here", and prompted him to continue. His gaze returned to the map on the table next to him.

"The Legionary units spread out across the district have been given orders to fall back to more stable headquarters positions in the district to lure the Titans way from exits and-".

"What about the Garrison units in Trost?" Pixis asked causing Dreyfus to pause and raise his eyes from the table.

"Excuse me?" he asked, causing Pixis to repeat.

"What about the Garrison units in Trost?".

"Well, unfortunately we have no control over them-" Dreyfus, began only for Pixis to clarify.

"I mean what actions do you desire them to take to guarantee the protection of the district's civilian population".

Dreyfus couldn't explain why he paused briefly. Maybe it was that he was struggling to comprehend a higher up member of Eldian society being a help rather than a hindrance for a change. Maybe it was the idea that the man truly believed that the Garrison could have a significant role in this military action, or that he was being so frank about his opinion. Regardless, for a few seconds there was silence before Dreyfus eventually responded with.

"Where do you believe them to be stationed?"

"Like your men they'll be scattered throughout the city and right now they're most likely on their way to, or are already at, their rally points. My question is concerned with not just the current defense of Trost but the counter-attack to rid it of the Titans" Pixis answered, causing Dreyfus to feel more relaxed now that he knew that the two of them were on even footing.

"If your men could serve as distraction forces or rapid response teams to temporarily fill in gaps that emerge in the defensive lines that would be greatly appreciated" Dreyfus began before adding.

"However, on we cannot begin to discuss in depth plans for a counter-attack until we can determine how much ground we've lost and where we've lost it or until we've stemmed the Titan surge with armored divisions". This response, unsurprisingly, was foreign to Pixis who responded by raising an eyebrow and repeated.

"Armored divisions?" which made Dreyfus realize that in addition to organizing a counter-attack he'd have to give the man a heavily abridged history lesson on cavalry, which would make his job all the more difficult. Of course, no one had ever said it would be easy and as he began his discussion with Pixis on the subject of Armored Cavalry he began to truly realize how big of a task his country had signed up for, and how long of a haul they were in for. As well as how miserable it might be.


	14. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create. I would also like to thank ManwithaPlan113 for volunteering to serve as a proofreader for my story. Please enjoy reading this story. And Thank you.**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

'Hi'= Flashback thinking

Hi=Intro

 _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_

Chapter 12

June 3rd 14:05 hrs., AOT Universe, Trost District

If one was to describe the scenes at the eastern and central security checkpoints as chaotic then the only way one could describe the scene at the main western checkpoint, and subsequent gate, was that it was on the brink of reaching complete pandemonium as a crowded mess and it was all due to a design flaw in Trost District's gate. Unlike the gates of the outcrops of Wall Maria, the outcrops of Wall Rose were not constructed out of defensive strategy, but instead out of a familiarity with the architecture of the outer most wall. Meaning that Trost was not as well designed for the event of a necessary mass evacuation of its populace to the bordering districts. Something best enshrined in the fact that rather than having a massive Gothic gate that could allow hundred of people to get through at once it had a much smaller Romanesque one that could, at best, allow dozens.

The result of this architectural gaff was that there was now a large crowd of Eldian civilians gathered in front of the district's tiny gate, panic etched onto their faces, some constantly turning to look behind them every few seconds in fear of a titan sneak attack, all begging to be let out. On the other side of the gate a small contingent of Coalition troops, some French but mostly Belgian, trying to communicate with the panicked crowd to calm down and that the situation would be resolved momentarily. Truly the whole thing looked akin to archived footage from the U.S withdrawal from Saigon in 1975 as the Eldians, like the abandoned South Vietnamese, mercilessly pushed against and climbed over one another. Fearing that a failure to do so effectively would cost them their lives.

The cause of all this pandemonium? Simple, one stupid merchant who was not willing to get out of the way.

"Monsieur please move your cart, we can't get through until you do" one of the Belgian officers shouted from the other side of the cart in as polite of a voice that he could muster.

"No, I must get my goods through my whole lively hood depends on it, I will not abandon this cart" the man responded.

"Monsieur, if you move the cart we can get the civilians through and then help you by emptying your cart and taking it through piece by piece" the same officer shouted, the man's trying of his patience gradually becoming more and more clear in his voice.

"Well then, why don't you help me now?" the merchant asked, causing one of the members of the crowd to wail with despair. No doubt realizing that the two parties were stuck at an impasse that no one at the gate had time for.

"Oh shut up!" the merchant shouted at the woman who, with teary eyes, clutched her baby to her chest in an attempt to find self reassurance that she and her infant would indeed survive.

"Listen here asshole!" one of the Belgians began.

"We're military soldiers, now I don't know if that fact means a damned thing for the slobs that you put in the Eldian military, but to us it actually does so get your stupid cart out of our way or so help me-" he continued only to be cut off by the merchant.

"How dare you! Officer, if you have any self respect you will discipline that fouled mouther and ill bred soldier of yours at once!". Before the officer in question could offer a proper response, or a response in general, as moments before he could anything he noticed several small brown clad figures making their way towards the small crowd. The figures, who appeared to be in a full sprint, were obviously human, due to their diminutive size, and all appeared to be looking to be shouldering various forms of small arms. While also being clad in aforementioned uniforms that were a sort of potato skin brown.

"Sir, who's that" a soldier behind him, who'd obviously seen the same thing that he had, asked. Prompting the officer to answer with.

"We'll find out soon enough" the officer replied as he was the figures slowly got closer.

* * *

June 3rd 14:07 hrs., AOT Universe, Eldian Air Space, Trost District

"Is everybody alright?" a voice cracked over Cesar's radio causing him to subconsciously reach up to his head set part of his air helmet and begin to shift it a bit so that the microphone on the helmet's right side was not so close to his ear. The motion caused him to also partially turn his head to the right and allow him to look out and see one of his fellow escadrille members flying next to him before focusing back on gaining altitude. As the events which had just gone through his mind as to what had just happened and what they needed to do next.

To say that the take off had been difficult and disorganized would been a rather extreme understatement, a better way to describe it would be nearly impossible and utterly chaotic. No more that two minutes prior they, that being him and now 7, members that made up his escadrille were forced to pull off something that none of the Eldians had been trained for. An old fashioned WW2 direct take off without any of the modern precautions attributed to modern aircraft. While the concept had been something that Cesar and Joseph had indeed been briefed on when it came to the propeller part of their training it was something that they were instructed not to do. With the instructors going so far as to stress that doing so would not only be a violation of air force protocol, but possibly even be flat our illegal on an international scale.

"I'm fine, but I think Antoni got hit" another voice crackled over the microwave, causing there to be a slight gasp to be heard over the radio.

"Who was next to him?" the first voice, which Cesar now recognized to be Joseph's, asked in a slightly frantic tone.

"I-I was, but I think I'm fine" a voice chipped in. The voice so quiet that he almost didn't manage to hear it over the radio.

'Without a doubt that's Cadet Carolina' he thought as he began to gradually turn to level out.

"How's your plane?" Joseph asked. A question which prompted a slight pause which, although he would never admit it, caused Cesar's heart to be catapulted into his throat.

"Fine, if there's a problem my instruments and gages aren't showing it, so everything should be good" Cadet Carolina answered causing Cesar to let go of the breath.

"Captain what should we do next?" someone else asked, to which Cesar could only look at his own instruments and gages to see how he was doing. It was obvious that they wouldn't by any means have the normal amount of fuel that was expected for each plane of an escadrille before they would be allowed to take off for mission. But, at least from what he was looking at, it seemed as though there was enough to possibly do one or two runs at a target as long as they didn't have to fly to positions that were on complete opposite sides of the district.

"Sir, can you hear me? Sir? Sir?" the voice repeatedly asked, causing Cesar's patience to snap.

"Oh for God's sake will you shut up!?" he practically shouted, causing the radio to become deathly silent.

"Now first we're going to do a roll call, then I will call ground control, and then we'll do fuel checks" Cesar stated, stating the agenda with the authority of a proper officer before adding.

"Now roll call in numeric order"

"Green-2, okay" Joseph declared, beginning the roll call.

"Green-3, okay"

"Green-4, okay"

"Green-5, okay"

"...…"

"Green-6, call in" Cesar ordered, only to be meet with silence.

"...…."

"Green-6, call in"

"...…"

'Antoni's gone" Cesar thought, before moving on.

"Green-7"

"Green-7, okay"

"Green-8, okay"

"Green-9, okay"

"Green leader, okay" he stated before turning his attention, and subsequent ire onto ground control.

"Green leader to ground control do you read me over?" he called, only to be subsequently meet with silence causing him to thunder back with.

"For God's sake ground control, wake up will you? I have an entire escadrille air born".

"Hello Green leader, sorry out that, this is ground control" a voice crackled over the radio, followed before there was a brief pause during which breathing could be heard before the man added.

"We have reports of titans assaulting Wall Rose from the South, with heavy concentrations appearing to be formulating on the eastern half of the district, we advise that you proceed with caution to aid the ground forces located as long as is practical"

'Could you be any more vague on the time over the target?' Cesar mentally huffed before switching on his mouth piece and answering.

"Green Leader to ground control, understood". Pausing briefly, Cesar proceeded to once again turn his gaze towards his fuel gage to begin the process of doing the math as to how much fuel he had on board. From what he could tell it seemed as though the engineers on the ground had done been able to refuel the planes fairly quickly, considering how little time they had to do it.

'Looks like I may have upwards of 40 minutes of fuel' he thought as he looked up from his instruments to check the spacing of the planes within his escadrille.

"Alright, everyone, check your fuel and call it in" he instructed, as he performed more calculations in his head as to the transit time between the aerodrome and the target. When all of the cadets had answered it looked like they had a mode of 35 minutes of fuel, and with the estimated total flight time to and from the target being 14 minutes that means that they would be able to stay about 15 minutes over the target. At least if they wanted to be able to land at the aerodrome with relative ease and not in a manner to the helter skelter way they'd taken off.

"Okay listen carefully, we're heading over to the target and I want you to follow me there, once we reach I will give the signal and we'll separate to begin launching air strikes" he began, before looking in the general direction of the target in question.

"Then we'll separate into two sections Green-2, you will take Green-8 and Green-9 to form section 2. I will take Green-3, Green-4, Green-5, and Green-7 to form section two and we'll execute the plan from there. Understood?"

"Yes, sir" the whole escadrille chimed in causing Cesar to physically nod before acting.

"Okay, now follow me" and will that he turned his plane in the direction that they were supposed to go. Not entirely sure as to what was awaiting them.

* * *

June 3rd 14:08 hrs., AOT Universe, Eldian District Headquarters, Trost District

No more than several dozen kilometers away from planes of the Cesar's escadrille stood a castle looking building in the center of the civilian district turned war zone known as Trost. The castle itself had a single large tower with four distinctive window adorned floors, with three addition wings that helped to seal it off from the rest of the neighborhoods around it. Each wing having three floors of its own with a multipurpose window for each of the many rooms which dotted them. From the outside the tower portion of the castle looked to go up several stories, but areas such as the building's bell towers were only accessible from the inside by two spiraling staircases making them difficult to traverse. With the whole thing sporting grey walls and surrounding an inner garden with a large fountain.

Compared with the many rural villas that could be found in the innermost areas of Sheena the castle looked large but stuck between the early Renaissance and Late Medieval Period of European history, but surrounded by the many other buildings of the Trost District it seemed to cast a much more impressive figure. However, if the outside of the building looked relatively secure in its relation with the world outside it, especially the titan invaders that surrounded it. The truth was far different, for like with its relationship to the oncoming escadrille the castle's interior might've been in a different world.

A different, dirty, dusty, chaotic, bloody world where one's survival was anything but guaranteed and every minute which passed felt like an hour. Or at least that's the way that one Madeline Fichte would've described the scene that laid before her as she covered her mouth with a small, wet handkerchief to keep from choking on the dust that was now thick in the air. Which, when combined with the smell of spent bullet casings and blood, created a horrifying experience and that was before one began to describe the noise.

'Oh God the noise' she thought as her hearing began to try and make something of the loud cacophony of noise around her, ears locking onto any intelligible noise around her.

"Somebody hold him down!" she heard a voice shout followed by another painted scream as well as gurgling noise, as sickening as it was distinct. No doubt coming from one of the many wounded Garrison members who'd been brought to the headquarters in the many minutes since she and the other reporters had been relocated to their current location.

When the reporters had been brought there a few minutes earlier it had been with other members of the Eldian Legion, under the promise that they'd be safer there than with the regular populace and that if they just sat tight help would arrive soon. But that was before, before the wounded Garrison soldiers started showing up at the headquarters. The lucky ones under their own power, most needing assistance from their fellow soldiers in order to make any progress, but all united in the fact that they were missing something. Arms, hands, legs, some boasting amputations that went all the way to their shoulders or thighs, while one or two had been completely bisected from the waist down.

All sporting pain riddled faces and in desperate need of medical attention, causing Madeline and many of her fellow reporters to drop their cameras and begin acting as volunteer medical personnel for the few medics that had been assigned to the Eldian units. Their assistance managing to make the whole situation a little more manageable, but not necessarily more effective.

"Mrs. Fichte, Mrs. Fichte!" one of the medics shouted, causing her to look up from where she was one the floor. Not realizing that she'd tripped, let alone fallen and hit the ground.

"Are you alright?" he added causing her to look down and, upon seeing no injuries, respond with.

"Y-yes, sorry, I didn't realize that I fell"

"It's alright, there's a lot going on right now, but I need you to get take one of the soldiers and get as many rolls of bandages as you can carry and get back here as soon as possible, can you do that" the man stated, causing her to nod.

"Thank you" the man responded before she turned and began looking to see if there were any people that she could get to help her in her current mission. Unfortunately in her attempt to find someone she happened to spend less than a second passing b y one of the building's windows, just as something was coming their way.

"Get down!" someone shouted seconds before something impacted the window, causing a loud sound to erupt from her right. Seconds before she felt something impact her ankle, causing her to fall almost flat on her face and let out a grunt in pain.

"Ma'am are you okay?" a familiar voice asked, causing her to look up and smile when she saw Brandon offering her a hand.

"Yeah, I just took a hard tumble that's all" she answered as she took the hand that he was offering her before getting up before addig.

"By the way, what was that?"

"It appears that those things can throw small bits of debris, wish they'd mentioned that in the reconnaissance reports" Brandon answered, as he wiped the dust and debris off of his jacket. To be honest most of the titans couldn't so much pick up or throw things, it would probably be best categorized as hitting things really hard causing them to lift off into the air. But the result was the same, as was the result of having massive projectiles flying through the air and hitting something while traveling at a high speed.

Rising to her feet once again, Madeline once again found her ears picking up the distinct sound of wounded soldiers, and possibly reporters, groaning in pain. Causing the one or two available medics to begin running to the soldiers and assess their wounds before moving those who were in more dire need of immediate attention towards the few tables which had been set aside for whatever first aid could be given out.

"Where were you heading Ma'am?" Brandon asked.

"I need to get bandages with the aid of as many available people as possible if-" she began only for one of the Eldian Legionnaires to walk up and ask.

"What're the two of you standing around here for?"

"Mrs. Fichte was enlisting my help to get medical supplies from one of the lower floors" Brandon asked, causing the Legionnaire to nod before adding.

"I see, there's not much I can do to assist you, but I can possibly offer you two of my legionnaires to assist you in your endeavor on one condition".

"What's that?" Madeline asked, causing the man to turn and face her.

"That you allow for no less than one of them to grab more ammunition for us, we sadly can't spare any men to do the job for us" he added, causing Madeline to nod emphatically. Desperate for the help and not seeing any problem in their agreement.

"Alright then" the man began before turning around and shouting.

"Ymir, Springer get your asses over here!" a statement which saw two soldiers suddenly rush over and stand at attention.

"What is it sir?" the shorter, and presumably male, one asked as he saluted.

"These two civilians have volunteered to descend to some of the lower levels of the castle to get some badly needed bandages and I have enlisted you two to aid them and retrieve some ammunition, understood?" the speaker, who was without a doubt an officer, thundered earning a "yes sir" from the two soldiers in question. Causing the two to begin making their way towards the supposed stairwell which led down to the lower levels in question. A relieving development as truthfully Madeline didn't think that either she or Brandon knew exactly where the specialized medical supply room was, let alone where the building's weapon cachet was. The many doorways that were connected to the winding staircase all looking identical in the poorly torch lite light, making the descent a silent and tense process.

"If you don't me asking, do either of you know who those soldiers they brought in were or why they were so badly chewed up?" Brandon asked as they descended down the stairs, his question providing a reason for the four to talk. Or at least that's what one might think, as instead of receiving an immediate response the two Legionnaires proceeded to keep making their way down the stairway in question. Silence being the answer to the question until the front one of them, Madeline was fairly sure that it was the girl named Ymir, paused allowing her companion who was the second person in their quartet to give an answer.

"I'm not entirely sure" the boy named Springer began, glancing over his shoulder as he did so.

"But I think that they're part of the Garrison, a vanguard or forward reserves of some sort, maybe something else". The answer caused Madeline to be slightly surprised, not because of who the soldiers were but more so where they were given who they fought for.

"But I thought all the regular Eldian military units were being withdrawn to section headquarters like this one" she responded almost instinctively, causing Springer to nod in agreement.

"So did I, or at least that's what we were told was supposed to happen, but obviously that wasn't the way things went for this unit" Springer added, not feeling the need to place anymore of his thoughts on the matter as they restarted their descent down the stairway. After all, what else was there that could be said? They'd seen first hand the result of this unit engaging the titans directly without any of the Coalition's support, a lesson they were fairly sure wouldn't happen again. The only thing that Madeline couldn't understand was why those Garrison soldiers had elected to do so? They, must've know how their comrades in other engagements had faired attempting to do the same thing. So what, had they seen?

'What in deed?' Madeline thought as they continued their descent.

"Hold up" the woman at the front of their quartet declared in an authoritative voice declared while simultaneously raising her hand in a clenched fist, causing all of them to stop upon hearing this declaration. Pointing the flashlight that she held in her right hand, the women proceeded to examine the door before fiddling with the door handle and pushing the door open, allowing the quartet to exit the stairway. In doing this they were able to finally enter one of the building's lower floors, somewhere near the basement, and began examining the various boxes that were scattered around the various rooms. picking up whatever they could based on what the boxes' claimed was inside of them as well as how heavy they appeared.

* * *

June 3rd 14:10 hrs., AOT Universe, Eldian Air Space, Trost District

"Can you see anything Green-2?" Cesar asked as he looked out of his cockpit canopy, his heads up display fully engaged.

"No, nothing Green-leader" Joseph responded in a tone that was somehow calm and strained at the same time.

"Wait, I think I see something" one of the other escadrille members declared before adding.

"I have a visual sighting of the hostiles Green-leader, down at roughly 4 O'clock low". The announcement caused Cesar to look in a diagnolly downward direction to the left to find that sure enough the titans were down in the distance, but not where they'd been expecting them. The previous reports had informed them that they were coming from the west and gathering by the headquarters, however the majority of the titans were instead on the opposite side of the headquarters. Not only that but they were gathering at all but rather widely spread out with several large carcasses strewn in the city streets.

"Okay listen up, I will lead section 1 to attack the titans and I want the members of section 2 to keep your eyes peeled for any abnormal titans until we rotate, understood?" Cesar stated earning a series of affirmative responses.

"Alright then, section 1 here we go, attacking now" he ordered before he and the other 3 planes of his sub-section broke off from the rest of the escadrille and began making their runs on titans below.

Sizing up one of the medium sized titans Cesar proceeded to rapidly descend from his position, locked his computer on the beast, aimed for its neck, and squeezed the button on the joystick causing a 68 mm rocket to fly forth from his aircraft. Exploding upon impacting the titan's neck and sending huge chunks of the beast's flesh, as well as steam from the gaping wound, into the air. Then, as suddenly as he'd begun his run, Cesar broke off to the left suddenly and rapidly gained altitude to avoid the snapping jaws of the other titan's whose attention he'd gained.

"Nice kill sir" one of the other pilots declared over the radio in a cheerful tone, causing Cesar to silently shake his head before responding with.

"Thank you, now go get one yourself".

There are no exact words within the English language that can be used to entirely describe the one-sided affair which took place following the engagement of the titans by Cesar and his section due to the relative ease with which they did it. Staying high, and well out of the large jaws and paws of their foes, the Super Étendards made repeated runs against the exposed titans. Firing one, only on a rare occasion two, SNEB rockets before breaking off their attack. Something which caused confidence to build amongst the unit, a development which soon came out in their conversations.

"This is easier than hitting a barn door" Cesar heard someone exclaim before for another one chimed in.

"More like catching fish in a barrel"

"You'll be the one in that barrel if you don't keep your eyes open for any abnormal titans" Cesar thundered back over the radio as he watched another one of his fighters make an attack on a titan, the beast swinging its head around helplessly in an attempt to protect itself from the speedy foe it faced. Its efforts ultimately proving utterly futile do to its large bulk and lack of speed.

"Green-leader this is Green 8, I have visual on a titan moving in rapidly from the east" a voice crackled over the headset causing Cesar to suddenly pull up from his most recent strafing run.

"Green-8, this is Green-leader, I hear you but may I ask why this one's so special?" Cesar could help but ask as he rapidly gained altitude so that he would have the necessary ceiling to have the current conversation without the fear of becoming a casualty. An idea that was only made possible due to the fact that the titans lacked any modern surface to air weapons that might've made the current air to ground engagement less onesided.

"It looks like this one might be an abnormal sir"

The answer caused Cesar to pause suddenly before glancing in the direction in question, trying to see what his subordinates saw, his attempt only being awarded with the sight of what looked to be a cloud of dust and rubble making its way towards them. More or less forcing his hand.

"All units break off the attack and prepare to engage the enemy coming from the east, I personally recommend that we use extreme caution when engaging the target" Cesar ordered, slightly surprised at the speed with which he his units responded to the order. Possibly more in response to the hostile approaching them, than to the fact that he'd given them the order. A sign as to how much fear these hostiles generated amongst the Eldian be told Cesar himself was slightly unsure as to what exactly he and his escadrille were expecting to face, after all the fact that so few of the Eldians who had encountered the abnormal titans had subsequently lived to tell that tale meant that the information had been as vague as it was uncertain.

From what the Eldians they'd interviewed had told them that these abnormal titans were supposedly smarter than their "regular" counterparts. Of course this information couldn't have been more vague, while also remaining on the same topic due to the fact there were so many unaccounted for variables. How smart was a "regular" titan? How was this intelligence determined? Was it connected to critical thinking? Did a titan's intelligence pertain to its size? Did it pertain to its age? If so how did titan's age? Naturally, this wasn't helped by the fact that in the many days that had passed since the Coalition's arrival not a single one of these abnormal titans had appeared. At least not until now.

'Better safe than sorry' Cesar thought as he and his whole until sped towards their soon to be opponent in their standard v-like formation, allowing for each member of the escadrille to cover the other visually while also allowing for a concise and overwhelming firepower on any targeted position. The resulting scene was something more or less straight out of a movie. Two sides speeding towards each other as fast as they could go, seemingly bent on each other's destruction, and prepared to unleash all of their destructive capabilities on one another.

"I'm in range" Cesar muttered to himself, for once not caring whether or not anyone else heard him say so.

"Sir! Hostile coming in from 3 o'clock" a voice declared, causing Cesar to look to the right and see another titan speeding towards them.

"Break!" he shouted, without any hesitation causing the whole escadrille to fly off in various directions and delaying their attack. But also allowing them to each have a distinct vantage point of the following act. That act being the abnormal titan attacking the titan that was lazily lumbering towards out location, striking it square in the jaw and causing blood & steam to erupt from the creature's face. Prompting it to be flung backwards while letting out a pained wail.

"Did you see that?" someone asked, as the abnormal proceeded to continue its assault on the unfortunate titan who had become the subject of its rage.

"I thought you locals said that the titans only attacked humans" Joseph stated, prompting an immediate response from someone else.

"That's what the Survey Corps and Garrison said" before they added.

"Maybe, it's because that titan crossed the abnormal? Challenged it in someone way?"

"What should we do Green-leader ?" someone else chimed in.

"If these things want to duke it out and kill themselves it's none of our business, we need to support the legionnaires in the command post" Cesar firmly stated before turning his plane back towards the building in question, the rest of the escadrille following him as he did so. None of them, in that moment, aware as to the massive development that they'd just bore witness to or its consequences.

* * *

Hello Everybody,

I know it's been a few...months since I last updated, as much as it pains me to admit it this sudden hiatus was not at all planned. Things got difficult with school and work, but I will try to get out another chapter before the end of winter break. I hope that this chapter is at least up to, if not surpasing, my usual standard and I am deeply sorry for having made you all wait so long.

Sincerely,

Jackie Robinson


	15. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri while Shingeki no Kyojin is the property of Hajime Isayama, I only own the OCs I create and finally, I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank You.**

 **"Hi!"=Yelling/Title**

"Hi"= Speaking

'Hi'=Thinking

 _"Hi" = Flashback_

'Hi'= Flashback thinking

Hi=Intro

 _"Hi!"= Flashback Yelling_

Chapter 14

June 3rd 14:08 hrs., AOT Universe, Trost District

There were many things Major Henri Matthieu had been expecting when he'd heard the rather ominous sound of footsteps rapidly running towards him. More civilians desperately trying to find a way out. More disorganized Eldian soldiers, adandoned by their officers and with no where to go. Perhaps, if he was particularly unlucky, he might find himself staring down some to the afformentioned merchants cronies, sent by the "powerful friends" the man had been raving about for the past few minutes. Meaning the addition of an even greater number of obstinant men and women who may be even less cooperative with him and his troops than the older merchant himself.

Luckily, however, it was none of these. Instead Major Matthieu found himself watching as several individuals clad in brownish uniforms with tin looking helmets charged towards him, with FAMAS assault rifles slung over their shoulders.

"Aren't those members of the Eldian Legion, sir?" the private who had just been conducting a verbal duel with the afformentioned merchant asked. Prompting Henri to place a hand over his eyebrows to block the bright sun that was filtering in from the sky, and give him a better look.

"Yes," Henri answered, before finding himself adding.

"Now we can finally settle this whole affair".

"Major Henri Matthieu, is that you?" one of the individuals, a girl, asked as she reached where he was standing.

"Yes and who, may I ask, do I have the honor of speaking to" Henri answered, earning him a sturdy salute.

"Seargant-Major Annie Leonhart, I was assigned to help in directing a small group of people from the medical office towards the main evacuation area" she responded, as she waded through the gathered group of civilian. With her being jostled each step of the way.

"Well Seargeant-Major, if you would be so kind, could you please inform Monsieur..." Henri began, trailing off as his gaze fell upon the merchant.

"Algeiger, Hanz Algeiger, and if you wish to avoid being placed on potato peeling duty for the rest of your miserable carrer I suggest that you remember it" the old man huffed, making little effort to hide his contempt for Henri's authority.

"If you could properly explain the situation to Monsieur Algeiger I would greatly appreciate that, I can't seem to get through to him" Henri stated before adding in an equally contentious tone.

"Peraps the concept of human charity is something far too poor for this man of wealth to understand". A suggestion that prompted a round of snickering from the troops behind him.

"Monsieur Algeiger, this may seem like an act of great inconvenience, but if you let these people through that I will...personally work to ensure that your carge is safely delivered to wherever it needs to go-" Annie began, only for Algeiger to cut her off.

"Then why not do it now?!".

"Because-" she began, only for the sound of booming foot steps to cut her off as well and the whole crowd to turn and fist see a small group of Garrison troops running towards them. Followed by a 15 meter tall titan, that somehow managed to sprint towards them, causing the already panicked group of civilians to descent into complete pandimonium.

"Private Goetz get up here with the M72 up here now!" Henri ordered, prompting private Goetz to do just that and join the Major onto of the merchant's cart.

"Hey, get down from there!" Algeiger cried out, only to be ignored by the two men and their more pressing concern as Private Goetz kneeled down on top of the cart's uneven supplies and Major Matthieu loaded a rocket into the LAW. For a few tenths of a second the two men stood looking at the rapidly approaching titan, as the Major made sure to properly secure the rocket into the weapon. While waiting for it to be in near point blank range.

"Fire when ready" Henri ordered, and no more than a hundredth of a second later the rocket flew out from the LAW. Tailing off with a white streak, letting out a high pitched scream so loud that there was not a civilian with empty hands who did not put them to their own ears or the ears of a loved one, the rocket flew towards its target. All while it began arcing up slightly before slamming into the titan's head, right below the monster's right eye. Causing it to stagger backwards before raising its hands to its face and letting out a cry, steam pouring from its now gaping wound.

"The neck private, the neck!" Henri shouted as withdrew a second rocket from the bag at Private Goetz's feet and loading it into the LAW.

"Oui, Major" Goetz answered before aiming the LAW a little bit lower and firing once again, this time not missing as the rocket slammed into the titan's neck, just before exploding. Causing the head of the titan to be jettisoned several meters into the air before the rest of the body collapsed, steam slowly rising from the titan's now decapitated body, and prompting a round of cheers to erupt from the crowd. All while Major Henri turned his attention back towards Algeiger.

"So Monsieur Algeiger, now that the more pressing concern is dealt with, will you please move your cart so that we can get through?" Henri asked, looking into the man's panicked eyes. Obviosuly shocked by the events which had just transpired the man was unable to do much more than move his lips and blink once or twice, causing Henri to let out a sigh and state in an offhand manner.

"Alright, I guess we'll have to do it ourselves" before turning aroung.

"Alright men, line up and prepare to move on three" he ordered prompting both the Belgian and French soldiers on the other side of the cart to move between the horses, while Henri and Private Goetz took the reins of the horses from the stunnded man.

"One, two, three, push" Henri ordered, prompting the men to begin pushing and force the cart back a few centimeters.

"Come on, one, two, three, push!" Henri ordered again causing the men to push once more and force the cart back rought a few meters. A motion which the horses pulling it tried to counter by turning away from the group of men which, when Private Goetz began to utilize the reins, allowed them to begin turning the cart around.

"Come you lot out your backs into it!" Henri shouted to the growing group of men before giving them the order to move again. This time with a far more successful result, allowing for the civilian and military traffic to begin to pass on either side of the cart to get by and the French soldiers to begin taking apart Algeiger's cart piece by tiny piece.

* * *

June 3rd 14:40 hrs., AOT Universe, Eldian District Headquarters, Trost District

There are certain sayings that, despite their old age, have proven to almost always be true.

 _"The grass isn't always greener on the other side"_

 _"Be careful what you wish for, it might just be true"_

 _"Your eyes were bigger than your stomach"_. Are just amongst of the more popular and often repeated ones. However, during the current task that the small combined quartet of two Eldian Legionnairies and two Western reporters the saying that seemed to have most resinance was that of.

 _"It'll hurt more going back up, than coming down"_

"Can we please pause for a second?" Brandon asked as he let out a series of quick pants, all of which seemed to have vague wheezing sounds to them. Initially one might assume that Brandon's distress was some sort of performance, after all the man spent most of his time in the field carrying around a rather large television camera. How much more difficult could it be to carry a box of Red Cross supplies and a box of military materials? However, if almost anyone had to pick up a single one of the boxes they would almost instantly find themselves eating ever single word in that question.

The weight of a single Red Cross box alone did not simply rival, but could've surpassed the weight of the strapped on camera that the poor man usually wore. Whilst a single box of the military supplies posed no contest, easily surpassing the camera several times over. On there own the boxes would be unpleasant to move, combined it nothing short of a near Herculean endeavor. An endeavor which was made worse by the fact that the two Legionnaires in front of him were only carring military supply boxes in contrast to he and Madeline who carried one box of medical and one box of military supplies.

"We can't stop now!" was the distinctly harsh sounding anwer from Ymir causing the man to let out a pressed sigh, before falling to one knee.

"Ymir maybe we should rest, I mean we nearly sprinter up several flights of stairs to get this far, I think that everyone could use a thirty second break" Connie suggested, causing Ymir to first look towards him and then towards the two journalists before returning her gaze to Connie.

"Alright thirty seconds, no more" Ymir firmly answered, prompting Connie to counter with.

"No less" not sure as to where he found the courage to do so. After all no one, with the lone exception of the French drill instructors and the occaisional superior officer, had ever managed to give an ultimatum to Ymir.

"No less" she repeated before placing her boxes down.

"Brandon are you okay?" Madeline asked, her attention now focused on her ailing camera man. Who had by now placed his boxes down and was in the midst of pulling out an emergency inhaler.

"Fine, I'm fine, I just haven't had an attack this bad since I was in high school" Brandon answered before taking three long puffs of medicine and adding.

"I thought that I'd grown out of it lucky, when my doctor heard I was coming to a place like this, he convinced me otherwise". Perhaps it was upon hearing of Brandon's struggle, but only then was Madeline able to let her shoulders sag as her camerawoman demeanor was lifted from her face. Allowing the entirety of the group to see how distressed she really was. A change that culminated in her asking the supposedly unaskable question of.

"How long do you think you'll be able to hold out if we get these supplies upstairs?".

"Long enough" Ymir answered, not allowing even the briefest of seconds to pass between the question being asked an answer being offered.

"That's all that matters" she added, doing so in a tone that seemed to dare any of the other three people in the group to challenge what she was saying. A challenge that no one accepted, resulting in the rest of the short break being filled with Brandon's panting and silence.

"I knew that your military forces were poorly prepared to repulse any attacks, but I never thought it would be this bad" Madeline offered in an off handed tone, trying to get there to restart the conversation on something that they all could agree on.

"That's because our aristocracy, who supplies the military with their weapons, are cheapskakes and our officers are stubborn" Ymir answered, as she hoisted up her boxes before adding.

"And almost every one of our generals in command is a complete dumbass". A statement that prompted a small chuckle to come from Connie's lips, as though the reality was so amusing to him that he wouldn't even begin to refute it.

"If they're so inept they how do they become generals?" Madeline asked, partially knowing the answer but also wanting to confirm her suspicions. After all quotes from actual inhabitants often made field reports than statistics and arm chair speculation from analysts in comfortable news rooms, many miles away from the tragedies they were discussing.

"Because they know so many people, and their blood is so valued, that the monarchy doesn't mind spilling everyone elses'" Ymir answered, a statement that finally prompted Connie to break his silence.

"Alright Ymir-" he began only for the girl to continue with.

"Jokes on them though, if they sacrifice all of us they'll have to sacrifice their own blood sooner or later". Before raising her boxes higher and proceeding to make her way up the stairs, with the rest of the group dutifully following her. Luckily, due to the fact that they'd sprinted up the stairs at first, the remaining section of their endeavor was only a floor or two. Allowing them to make it right back to where they'd started, with Ymir making their entrance damatic by kicking open the door.

"Ammo, granades, gauze, disinfectant, and numbing agents; come and get them while we've got them!" Ymir shouted as they enterd the room. Prompting a small group of commondeered reportes, and a large group of soldiers, to sprint towards them and forcefully remove each of the boxes before their hands. All before tearing the boxes open and quickly began dissecting their contents. Prompting Connie to give a slightly unsatisfied.

"Your welcome by the way".

"Hey, come and check this out!" one of the soldiers by the windows shouted, causing his comerades who'd rushed the quartet to grab whatever they could carry and sprint towards the window where he stood.

"Is the air force doing another run?" one the men anxiously asked, making no attempt to conceil the desire for another brief reprieve of attacks from their position. His answere being greeted by the sound of jet fighters flying above them.

"Not only that, look" the soldier stated, pointing downwards at one of the roads that ran in front of the castle and causing several of his comerades to follow where he was pointing. If there was ever a time to pull out the old Hollywood cliché of the cavalry coming to the rescue of a small surrounded, outnumbered, and sometimes entrenched infantry unit Madeline couldn't think of it. For as she reached the window to the right of where the man was standing she found herself looking at just that.

It wasn't the largest vehicle convoy she'd ever seen, most of the armor columns she'd seen on TV during the earlier days of Operation Iraqi Freedom easily out shone it; as the small convoy consisted of only about a dozen Panhard ERCs and a dozen VCBIs. But given the hell that all the soldiers had endured for at least the past half, it was nothing short of a gift from God. Prompting cheers to erupt from the group. Reaching near deafening heights when, no doubt upon seeing a titan, one of the ERCs stopped and turned to the left before firing a round and moving on its way.

"How do you like that you sons of bitches?!" one of the soldiers shouted as the leading ERC proceeded to blow away another titan that made the mistake of getting into its was, before finally pulling up to the castle. Signalling that, although it was of a humble and undoubtably small scale nature, this battle was about to change permanently.

* * *

June 3rd 14:40 hrs., AOT Universe, Eldian Air Space, Trost District

"This is Leopard leader, I have two escadrills of Mirage 2000Cs behind me, and we're rapidly approaching from your 7, do you copy over?" a voice asked. Causing Cesar, who was in the middle of peforming a run, to suddenly pull up and soar high into the sky at the disruption.

"Can you repeat that?" Cesar asked, wanting to make sure that he was not simply hearing things.

"This is Leopard leader, I have two escadrills of Mirage 2000Cs behind me, and we're rapidly approaching from your 7, do you copy over?" the voice repeared, causing Cesar to feel a smile appear on his face. While also letting go of a breath that he didn't know, but ultimately wasn't surprised that he was holding.

"Yes I copy" he answered, as he rapidly soared over the battlefield.

"Sorry for the wait, we had problems getting the ground crews to give us the proper ordiannance on board" Leopard leader stated, prompting Cesar to almos instinctively ask.

"What do you mean by that?"

"It took a little convincing to get them to place both GBU-12s and Exocets on our planes" the man answered, prompting Cesar to ask.

"I thought that payload was grossely over the maximum weight?".

"That's what they kept telling us, and I kept telling them that I didn't give a damn so they'd better do it unless they wanted me to personally put my foot up each of their asses" Leopard leader stated, before adding.

"Now get your boys out of our air space so that we can properly smoke these bastards" causing Cesar to feel the grin on his face to grow even wider.

"Copy that" he answered, before switching his comms to the rest of his escadrille.

"Sir why'd you pull out of your dive like that, is someting wrong?" one of his escadrille members asked, worry clearly audible in her voice.

"Everyone we've just gotten a gift of mercy, we've go two escadrilles of fighter-bombers on the way here" causing another voice to cone on over the radio and ask.

"Does that mean what I think it means, sir?".

"Yes, watch your seven when you pull off we're, going home". With that several cheers could be heard over Cesar's headset as he began to turn and head back to base for fuel, weapons, and if they were lucky maybe a bite to eat or some rest. Relieved that, in spite of the odds that were stacked in their favor, he and...all but one of his escadrille had manged to survive. His mind going to the fate of Antoni as he passed over what looked to be the outline of a small armored column making its way down one of the streets of Trost.

'About time you showed up' being the only thought that came to his mind as he did so.

* * *

June 3rd 14:39 hrs., AOT Universe, Coalition Headquarters, Ehrmich District

"Sir, we've just received new from the front" General Dreyfus heard a voice call from over his shoulder. Prompting him to turn around, as he pulled out a cigarette, to see one of his junior staff officers walking towards him with a piece of paper in his hand.

"Would you mind reading it for me?" Dreyfus asked as he lit the cigarette, the only thign close to a relaxing comfort that he'd had in nearly the past hour. In spite of his general disposition against the smoking of the small stick of tobacco, Dreyfus had found himself unable to turn down the offer when one of his staff officers, seeing his distressed state, had offered him a pack to calm him down. An offer the General had taken hesitantly, having never smoked one before.

Now, as he stood with the third cigarette of the pack he'd been offered by the officer, he felt his eyes boring through the map in front of him and into the wooden table underneath it. All while the distinct warmth of the cigarette filled him and its noxious smoke filled the air. Much to the slight discomfort of Commander Pixis, who was currently standing right across from him.

"The titans' offensive into the Trost district has, for all intensive purposes, been stopped thanks to the combined efforts of our infantry and air forces" the officer stated, causing General Dreyfus to turn around and face the man in question.

"And what of the counter-attacks by our armored divisions?" Dreyfus asked, as he pulled the cigarette from his mouth and let out a small breath of smoke.

"The counter-attacks have started according to your orders and, based on the report listed here, they've gotten within striking distance of the main headquarters in the Trost District" the man answered, causing a smile to appear on Dreyfus' face.

"What's our next move then?" Pixis asked, causing Dreyfus to turn and face him as he took another drag from his cigarette.

"We'll need to begin to secure the area, pull back the civilians still trapped, and get out in the wounded" Dreyfus answered, as he began to move smooth the map over. Once again taking in the distance from the district's gates to where the headquarters was listed as being, and trying to estimate where the armored division might be.

"You're dismissed" he stated as he did so.

"There's something else sir" the officer began, causing Dreyfus to look towards him.

"Son, I said you were dismissed" Dreyfus repeated, aggrivation making his way into not only his voice but also causign him to drop may of the polite formalities of his native tongue to get his desired point across.

"I know sir, but there's something I'm fairly sure that either you or Commander Pixis are going to want to hear" the officer repeated, this time making sure to add.

"It might prove critical in our attempt to take back Trost, and maybe even Shingashina". Dreyfus' reaction was immediate, and a testimony as to how much those two minor notes changed his perspective on the possible information. As he suddenly spun around before walking over and taking the report from his officer and began looking into reading it.

"What is it officer?" Dreyfus asked, as he read over it.

"During the defense several pilots noted that one of the titans, an abnormal I believe, was acting wildly and attacking other titans in the district whilst making an active attempt to avoid injuring any of the human soldiers around him" the officer answered, prompting Dreyfus to look up in surprise.

"Commander Pixis, has this ever occured to you knowledge" Dreyfus asked, as he looked up from the article as he heard Pixis answer with.

"No, this is truly a first".

"Then we must make sure it's not the last," Drefus stated before going and putting his jacket on.

"Bring the fastest vehicle you can around here, Commander Pixis and I will personally investigate thi-" Dreyfus began, only to feel a strong hand fall upon his shoulder.

"Not so fast General, I do not believe that it would be wise for you to leave this command post just yet" Pixis stated, causing the man to glance over his shoulder at the suggestion.

"For God's sake man, what else am I supposed to do?" Dreyfus found himself asking in an irritated tone.

"Have the vehicle called, however I think it would be best if I went to investigate with a small squad of your soldiers to see if I can cohoberate the whole affair before you get involved and take any action as needed" Pixis stated, causing Dreyfus to pause briefly.

"Alright, officer give Pixis the four best men you can find and the best vehicle you can" Dreyfus states as he returned his cigarette to his mouth, before turning towards the table once again. The frustration on his mind made obvious for all to see in tense way that he carried his shoulders.

"Right away sir" the officer answered before turning his gaze to Pixis and adding.

"If you'll just follow me sir, I can get you those men and that car".

"Thank you son" Pixis replied, before following the man out of the office and leaving Dreyfus behind.

* * *

June 3rd 15:30 hrs., AOT Universe, Eldian District Headquarters Entrance, Trost District

"Alright, load him in, easy does it" one of the medics stated as he and one of the legionnaries carefully carried a wounded Garrison soldier towards the VCBIs that had been modified for medical purposes. With both the medic and the legionnaire ducking their heads to allow them to better squeeze the stretcher the man was on through the vehicle's rear entrance. Allowing for young Connie Springer to let out a releived sigh and sit down against the headquarter's door frame.

Over an hour after the attack had first begun the immediate area around the headquarters, along with two major lifelines into and out of the district, had been resecured. All thanks to the hard efforts of the the Eldian Legion, Eldian Garrison & Cadet forces, the French Foreign Legion, French Air Force, Belgian Army, British SAS detachments, and Canadian Expeditionary Force. With the strategy for forces in the headquarters changing from survive and hold to counter attack coming with the incursion of the Foreign Legion's lead armored strike force and then the early heavy bombing attacks from French fighter-bombers. All of which allowed for the initial incursion force to be re-enforced and the current legionnaires who were trapped in the headquarters to finally be relieved.

"Private, are you injured?" a high pitched voice called, causing Connie to look and see a female medic speaking in his direction.

"No ma'am, just lost control of my feet" he asnwered, in two breaths as he tried to steady himself. Raising his non-dominant hand as he did so to find that he was still trembling from the events that had just transpired, an act which the medic no doubt noticed.

"Then come here, I can get you and some of your comerades to the rear so that you can get some rest" she replied, prompting Connie to nodd.

"Yes, ma'am" he answered before trying to stand, slipping, and falling back to the groung as he did so. A development that caused the medic to sprint towards him, reaching him quickly, and proceeding to help him rise from his collapsed spot.

"Easy, easy" she calmly cooed as she helped him up.

"Now, let's just carefully move towards the VCBI, okay" she calmly instructed him, causing Connie to simply nodded before walking towards the vehicle. Occaisionally tripping on one of the loose cobblestones on the streets as he made his way the VCBI, before being gently placed in it.

"Anyone else?" the medic asked, prompting several reporters to make their way into the VCBI along with a few figures that he recognized.

"Y-Y-Ymir, J-Jean, Ar-Arm-min h-h-how's it g-going?" he asked as the three soldiers in question climbed into the vehicle, each sporting a FAMAS F1 over their shoulders.

"Good Connie" Armin answered, before leaning in close and asking.

"Are you alright?".

"D-don't kn-kn-know," was all Connie could answer before taking several deep breaths and adding.

"just f-feel wierd". Within seconds of Connie answering footsteps could be heard and a medic appeard seemingly out of nowhere before situating himself in front of the boy, who was now starting to make a snorting sound in his attempts to breath.

"Private, I need you to copy me alright?" the male medic called, causing Connie to try his best to focus his attention on him.

"Y-yes" Connie answered, prompting the man to put his hand on his chest.

"Alright, breath in" the man ordered, an instruction that Connie followed to the best of his abilities.

"Now breath out" the man added, which Connie again did to the best of his abilites.

"Breath in" the man once again instructed, which Connie did.

"Breath out" which Connie did. Finding the task of breathing a lot easier as he did so, but by no means easy as je and the man repeated the proceedure several more times. With the medic placing a wierd metallic device, a stethascop or something like than, on Connie's chest and moving it between each of his breaths.

"Alright, good, good" the medic state, before turning to the trio who'd recently climbed in and stating.

"If any of you notice him get any worse do exactly as I did, and if that doesn't do not hesitate to call me" before climbing towards the front of the vehicle where other soldiers with aggregious wounds were sitting. Many of them moaning in pain whilst trying to keep pressure on their injuries.

"Damn Armin, when you told us to pull back I didn't think that things would be this bad" Jean muttered as he pulled a cigarette from his pocket before lighting it and placing it to his lips. Causing one of the wounded soldiers, a man with facial and head hair that may have one time been black but had long since begun to fade to grey, to extand a hand towards him.

"Hey son, could you spare on old man a smoke?" the man asked, a request which Jean filled without hesitation. Going so far as to light it for the man as well, who repaid the act of kindness with the only way he knew how.

"Thank you" and a salute.

"You think that this is bad, these are the wounded who survived, you should've been here when the first started coming in" Ymir replied, lifting a canteen of water to her mouth as she did so. Her usual domineering attitude now gone, leaving in its place a woman who acted as though she was simply happy to be alive. The look immediately leaving her face when the female medic who initially treated Connie returned to the VCBI, shouting.

"Okay, we're full up" before climbing into the vehicle and shutting the door behind her. Prompting the drive to start it up and them to slowly begin moving.

"In order to keep the vehicular flow moving we'll need to take a slightly longer road back towards the aid station, we'll be taking a slightly longer way ba-" the driver began over the PA system before suddenly stopping, his calm tone changing to one of furstration.

"Hey watch were you're going assholes!" the driver shouted as the sound of vehicles suddenly went speeding by.

"Where the hell do you think they're going" another voice, probably either the co-driver or the main gunner, asked.

"Don't know, don't give a shit, we gotta go where we gotta go" the driver asnwered before the VCBI's engine started to life again as it shifted forwards, jostling the wounded members within it around. But ultimately not causing any of them to make any vocal complaints, all due to their knowledge that they were finally going back to safety. Going back home.


End file.
